China is expanding its nuclear weapons capabilities more rapidly than previously believed, the Pentagon warned in a report released on Wednesday. From a report: The People’s Republic of China “likely intends to have at least 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030, exceeding the pace that the Department of Defense projected in 2020,” the Pentagon said in the latest edition of an annual report to Congress. The report also cites China’s construction of at least three silo fields, saying they will contain “hundreds” of new intercontinental ballistic missiles.

“The PRC is investing in, and expanding, the number of its land-, sea-, and air-based nuclear delivery platforms and constructing the infrastructure necessary to support this major expansion of its nuclear forces,” the Defense Department said. That means China “has possibly already established a nascent nuclear triad” of delivery systems, it said, and is supporting its nuclear expansion “by increasing its capacity to produce and separate plutonium by constructing fast breeder reactors and reprocessing facilities.” The Pentagon’s new estimate that China is probably aiming for at least 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030 —including 700 “deliverable” ones by 2027 that could be mounted immediately on various missiles — appears to be based on an evaluation of its production capacity.

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Source: Slashdot – China’s Nuclear Arsenal Is Growing Faster Than Expected, Pentagon Says