China Missile Strikes Could Affect Two-Thirds of Australia’s Mainland as Beijing Conducts More Nuke Drills This Year

According to a frightening new assessment, China has the capability of launching missile attacks across "two-thirds" of Australia.

Former defense analysts and the Rand Corporation collaborated on the 33-page report to the Defense Strategic Review, which includes a map that shows how much of the US is exposed to prospective Chinese strikes.

China Might Launch Missile Strikes Across Australia

According to the submission, Australia is well within striking distance of Chinese missiles, and that artificial reefs and atolls in the South China Sea would allow China to launch "land-based DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile strikes," with the Mischief Reef atoll, 3000 kilometers northwest of Darwin, of particular concern.

According to the research, this establishes a ring range across several ADF sites in Queensland, the Northern Territory, and northern Western Australia. To properly protect the country, the paper advocates for stockpiles, petroleum depots, and prospective military sites to be relocated further south on mainland Australia.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the Defense Strategic Review in August, to help Defense better understand where it should prioritize investment to ensure the Australian Defence Force is well positioned to meet the nation's security challenges through to 2033 and beyond, according to News.

The Mischief Reef atoll in the Spratly Islands, which China has been developing since 2014, is of particular concern since it is now capable of launching DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missiles with a range of 4,000 kilometers.

In October, US intelligence revealed that Mischief Reef was militarily operational and that China was capable of striking the Pacific island of Guam, which is the westernmost point of US territory and a crucial strategic location.

The deadline for submissions was November 30, and portions of the finished evaluation will be made public early next year. Albanese met with Vietnam's national assembly president, Vuong Dinh Hue, in Canberra last week, while Defense Minister Richard Marles was in Hanoi, to boost South East Asian relations.

Among the topics to be considered during the AUKUS discussions is a timeline for Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarines from the United States and the United Kingdom. Other technologies, such as 'drone' submarines, which Mr. Marles describes as "more expendable, more numerous, and will provide better awareness over a much longer distance," will also be examined, as per Daily Mail.

China'' Ballistic Missile Tests

The Pentagon has warned that China would increase its nuclear arsenal to 1,500 warheads by 2035, after conducting more ballistic missile tests than the rest of the world combined. The Chinese military has been busily modernizing its ballistic missile supply, launching 135 in tests during 2021, which is "more than the whole globe combined," according to the US Defense Department on Wednesday.

In its financial statement on the People's Republic of China's military and security advancements, it stated that new intercontinental ballistic missiles were being built to considerably boost its nuclear-capable missile capabilities. Much of it took place in and around Taiwan. The Pentagon decided that China's military enhanced provocative and disruptive measures surrounding Taiwan in 2021.

This year, Beijing reacted to a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in August 2022 by conducting its largest and most aggressive drills surrounding the island since the 1990s. Beijing is also beefing up its nuclear arsenal, which has already topped an estimated 400 warheads, up from 200 just two years ago. It is currently predicted to reach 1,500 by 2035.

Even yet, it lags well behind the United States, which has around 5,500 warheads, and Russia, which has about 6,000, according to the Federation of American Scientists. According to the study, China's main goal is to gain global military supremacy and to build an international system that favors its worldview, posing the "most serious and systemic danger to US national security."

China is stretching its muscles, especially in the Indo-Pacific area, where it has taken increasingly coercive and confrontational activities, Telegraph reported.

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