FPI / August 5, 2021
Geostrategy-Direct.com
By Richard Fisher
Whether by chance or the result of long-term planning, it is coincidence.
Just as China’s People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) was found to be building about 236 new silos for nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) revealed on Aug. 2 that “The final assembly test of the two types of rockets has been fully launched.”
This news came from an Aug. 2 article on the Chinese Weibo web page, “The first batch of ‘Han production’ fast boat [Kuaizhou] solid launch vehicle.”
This article states, “The first batch of "Han-made" Kuaizhou solid carrier rockets will soon complete the final assembly test from the Kuaizhou General Assembly Center in Wuhan National Aerospace Industry Base.”
This means that the two rockets mentioned in the article, the CASIC Kuaizhou KZ-1A and the KZ-11, are beginning series production in Wuhan. Both types had experienced launch failures in the last year; the KZ-11 failed on its first launch on July 10, 2020.
However, CASIC has not been acknowledged by any Chinese sources to be producing ICBMs.
CASIC was unwilling to engage in any useful conversation when this analyst approached their booth, on display for the first time at the 2019 Paris Airshow.
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