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Asia’s New Arms Race: Missiles, Missile Defenses -- Trefor Moss, The Diplomat
The news that China is building a so-called “super-missile” is the latest in a string of developments with the potential to tilt the strategic balance in Asia.
Local media in China have cast doubt on foreign claims that the PLA recently test-fired its DF-41 intercontinental ballistic missile – though there is general acceptance that the program exists, and has done so for a long time. Whatever its development status, the long-range ICBM is believed to be road-mobile, and hence difficult to locate and pre-emptively destroy. The missile would be capable of travelling half way round the planet and then striking numerous targets, courtesy of a technology called multiple independent re-entry vehicles (MIRVs) designed to defeat missile defense systems.
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My Comment: Asia .... with it's huge populations and growing economies .... has the potential to have an arms race that could match what the arms race was like during the Cold War. But what makes this situation particularly dangerous are the numerous countries involved .... throw in the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and we could then have a situation that would not only be incredibly destabilizing, but a guarantee for conflict and war. Talk about worst case scenarios.