Staffers from a congressional panel reviewing U.S.-China security relations released a report this month raising alarm on China\u2019s \u201cincreasing\u201d capabilities to launch a yet-to-be-proven missile dubbed the \u201cGuam killer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guam is home to various military installations and is one of China\u2019s \u201cfocal points\u201d in developing its missile capability, according to a report from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Commission.<\/p>\n
The report centers its alarm on the \u201csurprise introduction\u201d of China\u2019s new road-mobile intermediate range ballistic missile, or IRBM, the \u201cDF-26,\u201d which is \u201creported to feature nuclear, conventional, and anti-ship variants and a range of 3,000 to 4,000 kilometers, or 1,800 to 2,500 miles.<\/p>\n
This means that Saipan, some 135 miles north of Guam, the southernmost island in the Mariana Islands chain, would be within this missile\u2019s purported range.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis range could cover U.S. military installations in Guam, roughly 3,000 km (1,800 mile) from the Chinese mainland,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n
However, the report later notes that, \u201cremaining challenges and gaps\u201d in China\u2019s capabilities \u201cindicate the level of risk is still low.\u201d The DF-26 \u201clikely will remain extremely inaccurate until China extends its precision strike capabilities,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n
China could employ surface- and submarine-launched attacks, the report said, \u201cbut with a high risk of the bombers being detected and intercepted by U.S. aircraft and anti-aircraft systems.\u201d \u201cThe DF-26 is still unproven, and China has yet to develop a sea-launched\u201d missile capabilities, the report went on to say.<\/p>\n
Still, the report concludes by suggesting that policymakers continuously monitor the \u201cperformance and sustainability\u201d of U.S. regional force posture to makes sure the U.S. \u201cmaintain its military edge.\u201d<\/p>\n
CNMI concerned<\/strong><\/p>\n The administration of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, for its part, said that they also echo concerns raised by Guam Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo on regional security threats, when sought for comment on the report.<\/p>\n \u201cThe administration agrees\u2026that the continued diplomatic talks by President Obama and China\u2019s\u00a0President Xi Jinping can advance the economic opportunities between our countries rather than military threats,\u201d said Office of the Governor spokesman Ivan Blanco.<\/p>\n \u201cFurthermore, it is reassuring to know that PACOM (United States Pacific Command) continuously monitors known and unknown threats to U.S. soil in the Pacific.\u201d <\/p>\n The commission report cites \u201cChinese writings\u201d to suggest Guam, among others, are \u201cfocal points\u201d for China\u2019s developing capabilities.<\/p>\n \u201cGuam is seen as a highly important feature in the purported U.S. containment strategy, with analysts noting its strategic position and its role as an \u2018anchor\u2019 of U.S. forces in the region and of the second island chain in particular,\u201d the commission said, listing Taiwan and Japan as other places of strategic interest.<\/p>\n The report notes that the U.S. plans to enhance its military presence in Guam in the future\u201d as part of the \u201cRebalance\u201d in the Pacific and reducing dependency on foreign bases. <\/p>\n \u201cThe redeployment of 5,000 U.S. Marines to Guam to reduce the U.S. presence on Okinawa, long delayed, is now projected to begin in 2020. The importance of Guam to U.S. strategic interests and any potential war fighting operations in the Asia Pacific is thus growing, even as China\u2019s ability to strike the island is increasing,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n But the report also states that, \u201cThe inaccuracy of China\u2019s IRBMs and vulnerability of its platforms that would be transiting to Guam indicate that the risk currently posed by China\u2019s conventional regional strike capabilities to U.S. forces on Guam in a conflict would be low.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThe primary concern would be the potential for China to fire massive numbers of DF-26 missiles China deploys as well as qualitative improvements to China\u2019s precision strike capabilities, bomber fleet, in-air refueling capability, and submarine quieting technology, to monitor the risk going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Staffers from a congressional panel reviewing U.S.-China security relations released a report this month raising…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[1451,169,11586,200],"class_list":["post-228101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","tag-asia-pacific","tag-china","tag-irbm","tag-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}