China is continuing to rapidly modernize, diversify and expand its nuclear arsenal, possessing ¡°more than 500 operational nuclear warheads as of May 2023 ¡ª on track to exceed previous expectations,¡± the Pentagon has said in
According to the U.S. Defense Department¡¯s annual congressionally mandated report released Thursday in Washington, the Pentagon estimates that China will probably have ¡°over 1,000 operational nuclear warheads by 2030,¡± many of which ¡°will be deployed at higher readiness levels.¡±
¡°What they¡¯re doing now, if you compare it to what they were doing about a decade ago, it really far exceeds that in terms of scale and complexity,¡± a senior U.S. defense official told a briefing on condition of anonymity. ¡°They¡¯re expanding and investing in their land-, sea-, and air-based nuclear delivery platforms, as well as the infrastructure that¡¯s required to support this.¡±
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