FOI expert on China's new nuclear weapons: "They want to show that they have caught up"

It was a huge military parade on Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Tuesday.

The crown jewel was the new intercontinental ballistic robot Dongfeng (Östanvind) 41. It has been talked about for a long time and some images have leaked in advance. But on Tuesday, it was the first time it was officially shown.

- It's to deter. China wants to show that it has a state-of-the-art system in par with the West. But it is hard to say anything about the exact ability of the system. Fortunately, we have not had to see how it works in reality, says Per Olsson, a researcher at the Swedish Defense Research Institute (FOI).

China is believed to have the equivalent of 290 nuclear warheads, according to the latest assessment from Stockholm's International Peace Research Institute, Sipri, which is valid for January 2019.

This means that they have about ten times more warheads than North Korea, which has between 20 and 30 warheads. It is on a par with France, which has 300 warheads and more than Britain's 200 warheads. However, it is still far behind Russia and the United States that have over 6,000 nuclear warheads each.

Just before midsummer, one of the world's leading nuclear weapons experts said that there is an increased risk that both the United States and Russia may resort to nuclear weapons. And in mid-September, over 100 international ex-politicians and militants wrote an appeal to the UN General Assembly.

They believe that the risk of a nuclear accident has not been so great in almost 60 years and mentions the Cuba crisis in 1962.

And now China's nuclear power is hitting military in both Russia and the United States.

- You say you should build a world-class defense force by 2049, says Per Olsson and continues:

- What I see in China's military modernization is the direction of movement. It can be said that China is after the United States. This has been done for a long time. But the gap has shrunk. China is much closer to Western capacity than it was 20 years ago. The question is where you will be in 20 years, he says.

The Dongfeng 41 intercontinental robot is believed to have the longest range of all nuclear weapons in the world. Various ranges are mentioned - up to 1,500 km, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

In addition, each robot can carry ten pieces of warheads, which makes it difficult if someone is to defend himself.

- If you have several small warheads, they can do a total bigger damage a single large warhead. Many also become more difficult to shoot down, says Per Olsson.

He adds that all combat tips would probably not be sharp charges.

- In a sharp position, not everyone would be a warhead. Some would be rails. But as a defender, you have to shoot down all the warheads because you don't know which is the target, ”he says.

In August 2019, the so-called INF agreement between the US and Russia expired. It banned the countries from having land-based medium-range robots. But both countries left the agreement.

They accused each other of breach of contract. They also criticized that the agreement did not apply to all nuclear weapons states.

China, one of nine nuclear weapons powers, has a large number of ground-based medium-range robots.

"If the agreement were to be worded as it is today with the scope that applies today, it would have banned virtually all of China's nuclear arsenal," Sipri's expert Shannon Kile told SVT News when it became clear that the US and Russia would leave the INF agreement.