China ‘has up to 3,000 nuclear weapons hidden in tunnels’, three-year study of secret documents reveals
By Daily Mail Reporter
Updated: 09:36 EST, 1 December 2011
China may be using thousands of miles of underground tunnels to hide a nuclear missile arsenal that is far bigger than current estimates, according to researchers.
They spent three years translating secret military documents, scouring the internet and studying satellite images for clues – and concluded that China may have as many as 3,000 missiles, compared with general estimates of between 80 and 400.
The researchers at Georgetown University, led by a former senior Pentagon official, concentrated on a 3,000-mile network of tunnels dug largely in Sichuan province by the Chinese Second Artillery, a secretive unit responsible for protecting the country’s nuclear weapons. After translating secret military documents, forums and studying images of a network of tunnels in China, the students believe the country could have as many as 3,000 warheads
In 2008, thousands of radiation technicians were sent to the region after it was hit by a huge earthquake. When TV pictures showed oddly collapsed hills across the province, officials eventually admitted there was a network of tunnels underneath, dubbing it their ‘Underground Great Wall’.
The 363-page study, as yet unpublished, has been discussed in Congress and circulated among defence officials. It was commissioned as ‘homework’ by the students’ professor, Phillip Karber, a prominent Washington defence strategist during the Cold War.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2067984/Chinas-nuclear-arsenal-seven-times-bigger-previously-thought-students-discover-year-study-secret-documents.html#ixzz34RMToQg3
The Great Weapon of China
Updated: 09:36 EST, 1 December 2011
China may be using thousands of miles of underground tunnels to hide a nuclear missile arsenal that is far bigger than current estimates, according to researchers.
They spent three years translating secret military documents, scouring the internet and studying satellite images for clues – and concluded that China may have as many as 3,000 missiles, compared with general estimates of between 80 and 400.
The researchers at Georgetown University, led by a former senior Pentagon official, concentrated on a 3,000-mile network of tunnels dug largely in Sichuan province by the Chinese Second Artillery, a secretive unit responsible for protecting the country’s nuclear weapons. After translating secret military documents, forums and studying images of a network of tunnels in China, the students believe the country could have as many as 3,000 warheads
In 2008, thousands of radiation technicians were sent to the region after it was hit by a huge earthquake. When TV pictures showed oddly collapsed hills across the province, officials eventually admitted there was a network of tunnels underneath, dubbing it their ‘Underground Great Wall’.
The 363-page study, as yet unpublished, has been discussed in Congress and circulated among defence officials. It was commissioned as ‘homework’ by the students’ professor, Phillip Karber, a prominent Washington defence strategist during the Cold War.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2067984/Chinas-nuclear-arsenal-seven-times-bigger-previously-thought-students-discover-year-study-secret-documents.html#ixzz34RMToQg3
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