So basically, there are nine countries that have intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Russia has the most, but the USA is a close second. However, apparently ours are more advanced, but who knows if that even matters. China is in third place with just 550 ICBMs, which is less than one-tenth of what we have, so there's nothing to worry about, right?
Well, not exactly. It turns out that China actually has more land-based ICBM launchers than the US, according to a letter that the US Strategic Command sent to Congress on Feb 7. This means that the number of ICBMs we thought China had is probably wrong, and they may have more than we thought.
And here's the really freaky part: Chinese ICBMs can reach anywhere in the US, including the three air force bases where we store 400 of our ICBMs. China has also built 360 more ICBM launchers/silos in western China, which contain DF-41 ICBMs that can carry up to ten warheads each. They've also increased their production of fissile material, which means they can make nukes faster than you can order a Big Mac. But it gets even worse. China has tunnel-based mobile railroad launchers for their land-based ICBMs, so they can transport them underground without anyone detecting them. And they refuse to join the START treaty, which Russia recently pulled out of. All of this is making tensions with China even more concerning. We've had incidents like the Chinese spy balloon passing over one of our strategic missile air force bases, and there's the issue of strengthening China-Russia relations in Ukraine. Plus, we're sending troops to Taiwan to help train their military and deter China's potential invasion.
