China will soon start rolling out its next-generation rail technology across the country, and it is likely the futuristic trains won’t only have passengers on board.
Christened Fuxing, which means “renaissance” or “rejuvenation” in Mandarin, the bullet trains will be able to cruise at 400 kilometres per hour and will replace the slower Hexie (“harmony”) locomotives on the nation’s sprawling 22,000 km high-speed rail network.
The first two have been shuttling passengers between Beijing and Shanghai since their commercial debut in June 2017, cutting the commuting time from the capital to the coastal economic powerhouse to a little more than three hours.
But it is believed the trains have also been designed for a security role, as they will be capable of rapidly deploying troops, military materiel, weapons and other firepower if the need arises.
Now that almost all counties in the eastern and central provinces and major cities elsewhere have been connected to at least one high-speed rail line, it will be a simple matter to shift reinforcements and supplies, and it will be much quicker than on the choked road system.
Fuxing’s high-speed locomotives carry bigger railcars than those on the old Hexie trains, offering greater logistical flexibility for shipments of troops contingents and bulky equipment. Trains can be shielded more easily from enemy surveillance than trucks and and, unlike airborne troop-carriers, are less vulnerable to inclement weather.
Trains have been used as military transporters for decades, but were first armored and modified to carry missiles, including nuclear warheads, by the Soviet Union.
In the 1980s the communist state devised a heavy purpose-built railcar to hold the RT-23 Molodets intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch vehicle; Western countries immediately realised the advantage of the railcars: they could be hidden anywhere there was a track.
“As it was impossible to precisely determine the place where they could fire a nuclear missile, they were dubbed as ‘death’ or ‘phantom’ trains,” the Washington-based National Interest reported in its February 2017 issue, citing Russian papers.
The RT-23 was followed by the Molodets BZhRK SS-24 Scalpel and by 2020 the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces are scheduled to take delivery of the latest version, the RS-27 or SS-X-31\32Zh Barguzin BZhRK. Like its predecessors, the RS-27 is a distinct class of launch vehicle for rail-mounted intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Moscow has signaled that it will continue to develop train-launched ICBMs and nukes and China appears to have also realised the benefits of using mobile launchpads instead of fixed silos.
The People’s Liberation Army is reported to have tested a rail-mounted ICBM for the first time in 2015, with a Chinese media article noting the missile train was “a countermove in response to America’s global missile defence system and C-PGS (prompt global strike) program” of hypersonic missiles.
Observers believe that China’s DF-41 solid-fuelled ICBM, which is now hauled around the country on road transports and is capable of carrying 10 nuclear warheads to a range of 15,000 km, is likely to be adapted to a rail platform in the near future.
It is probably no coincidence that Beijing continues to splurge hundreds of billions of dollars to extend heavy high-speed rail lines out to its vast western provinces, where many of the PLA’s ICBM and nuclear assets are located. A new line linking the southwestern city of Xian and Chengdu in Sichuan province was inaugurated last month.
Asia Times’ staff discovered the hot water…
Even when they build the high speed railway in their own country you also want to poke your nose into the matter. Which country transport system has no military implication? Silly article indeed.
So just like the US this article thinks that the only application worth pursuing is a military one. You just have to shake your head at the American mindset. Nothing passes through their brains except if it can be used to kill people in their millions.
Why is China eating their lunch? Thats why.
The US Interstate Highway system was also built with military uses in mind. That China *may* use its railiways this way is important for military planners elsewhere to consider, but no surprise. As with too many of this new breed of right-propagandistic AT piece, the sources seem to be one Chinese news article and lots of "may" and "observers think."
I saw a video of Russia launching a missile from a moving train, very impressive.
The shipping container missile launchers are another game changer, any shipping container could house a missile.
One empire falls, and another rises, it has always been that way.
Russia and China will do all they can to thwart a calming of the CCP’s crazy bad boy NK.
Neither country wants any sort of peaceful resolution here.
It is provocative to dwell so much on possible military used of a civilian transport system that benefit ordinary people. Especially so when Chinese defence policy is to have minimum deterence when it too can built 20 times more nuclear devices like the other two if she wanted to. This article apparently has abused its soft power to create fear amongst its readers.
The claims in your article are ridiculous: the US has almost 8,000 nukes, and China has some 300. If needed, the US can transport nukes on almost all its ships and aircraft, which are running all around the world, while China or Russia no not have a single military base abroad (Russian base in Syria is a temporary feature, and Chinese base in Djibouti is logistic and commercial). The US spends $800 billion (and over $1 trillion as all NATO countries combined) on its military budget, while China spends $150 and Russia cca. $100.
Who is who and why? Why someone has to lie about the obvious facts? Are people around so stupid to believe such lies?
The claims in your article are ridiculous: the US has almost 8,000 nukes, and China has some 300. If needed, the US can transport nukes on almost all its ships and aircraft, which are running all around the world, while China or Russia no not have a single military base abroad (Russian base in Syria is a temporary feature, and Chinese base in Djibouti is logistic and commercial). The US spends $800 billion (and over $1 trillion as all NATO countries combined) on its military budget, while China spends $150 and Russia cca. $100.
Who is who and why? Why someone has to lie about the obvious facts? Are people around so stupid to believe such lies?
I thought the U.S. does not spy on other nations. So much for that.
I thought the U.S. does not spy on other nations. So much for that.