China Releases Photo of Rare ICBM Test in Pacific

In a rare move, China on Thursday published a photo showing the previous day’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that can reach most of the continental United States.

China Junhao, the Chinese military’s media wing, posted the photo of the test launch but did not reveal the type of the missile or the test’s location. The photo showed the missile was fired from a transporter erector launcher. The launch tested “weaponry performance” and military training effectiveness and achieved desired goals, according to China Junhao.

The missile was DF-31AG, said Ankit Panda, a nuclear policy analyst with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. It has a reported range of 6,959 miles, capable of reaching most of the continental U.S. from most of its deployment areas in China, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said in its report of China’s nuclear force in January.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Defense Department on Wednesday confirmed that it received “some advanced notification” from China of the test. Sabrina Singh, deputy press secretary of the Pentagon, praised this as a good thing as it prevented misperception or miscalculation.

She called the notification a common sense, confidence-building measure, and Washington has pressed Beijing for more regular notifications of ballistic missile and space launches. The Chinese military said “relevant countries” had been notified of the test in advance.

China has a bilateral agreement with Russia on mutual notification for ballistic missile launches, but no agreement exists with its U.S. counterpart. China did not join the Hague Code of Conduct as well, which demands members to provide pre-launch notifications.

In October 2023, the Pentagon said China possessed 500 launchers for 350 intercontinental ballistic missiles, a class of ballistic missile with a range of more than 3,400 miles. The country’s intercontinental ballistic missile force is composed of the operational DF-5, DF-31, and DF-41.

The DF-31 was China’s first solid-fuel, road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 4,470 miles, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said. The missile, which was revealed in 2006, could not reach the continental U.S. from its deployment areas in China.

At least three DF-31’s versions, the DF-31A, the DF-31AG, and a silo-based variant, were produced with extended ranges and improved maneuverability. The DF-31AG is the same missile as the DF-31A but with a new launcher that has improved off-road capabilities.

Civil aviation notifications issued prior to the launch on Wednesday suggested the missile was fired from Hainan, a southern Chinese island province facing the South China Sea. Its dummy warhead splashed down 7,400 miles away, north of Tahiti in French Polynesia.

A strategic ballistic missile launcher that crossed the sea and arrived on the island for a launch test was a historic, major breakthrough, a Chinese military observer said on social media.

The Chinese intercontinental ballistic missile test came as the country’s aircraft carrier, CNS Liaoning, was underway in the Philippine Sea, a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean, with five other warships, including four destroyers and a fast combat support ship.

The Liaoning‘s formation was split into two groups as they transited southward between two Japanese islands on September 18. Speculation on Chinese social media suggested that the carrier strike group would be heading to the warhead’s splash zone in the Southern Pacific Ocean.

USS Theodore Roosevelt, a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, visited Guam in the Western Pacific Ocean on Wednesday for a scheduled visit to bring on stores and equipment. The warship was on its way to the U.S. following a surge deployment in the Middle East.