According to Reuters, the Pentagon believes China has quietly loaded over a hundred solid-fueled DF-31 ICBMs” into its new silos. Commercial satellite imagery revealed in June 2021 that China was building an immense field of missile silos near the northwestern city of Yumen, which is south of the Mongolian border. The field covered hundreds of square miles, and boasted 119 construction sites that were identical to China’s existing nuclear missile silos.
Further satellite photos taken a month later captured a second silo field of comparable size under construction near the city of Hami, about 240 miles northwest of the Yumen field. The Hami field was in a much earlier state of development than Yumen but appeared to be large enough to hold 110 to 120 silos. The third silo field was spotted by satellites in August 2021, although construction had probably begun several months earlier. It is located near the township of Hanggin Banner, Inner Mongolia; while roughly comparable in land area to the Yumen and Hami fields, it appeared to have fewer silos under construction.
...The Dong Feng 31 (DF-31) is a three-stage solid-fuel missile that was introduced in 2006. It can be deployed in both road-mobile and silo-launched configurations. The original model had a range of just under 5,000 miles, but the upgraded DF-31A variant can reportedly hit targets up to 6,800 miles away which would give it enough range to hit the West Coast of the United States from launchers near Mongolia. (Ed note: Why is this important to the US? Check out the last sentence above.) (Read More)