Almost simultaneously with the escalation of tensions between the United States and China over the South China Sea and Taiwan, the People's Liberation Army has considerably increased the number and scale of exercises in which its forces participate. , with a notable increase in scenarios approaching a military intervention against the independent island under American protection. Thus, in recent months, the Chinese naval, air, amphibious and naval air forces have carried out almost daily exercises in front of and around Taiwan, exercises widely relayed by the press and the media in Beijing, a way to increase the pressure on the authorities of the island, and to make them doubt the potential effectiveness of an American intervention if necessary. At the same time, Chinese engineers have also multiplied innovations in the field of armaments that can play a key role in such a military intervention that we know is risky in more than one way, face to well-equipped, motivated, and seasoned Taiwanese armed forces by 70 years of face to face with the PLA.
This is how the Chinese ballistic forces recently tested a new short-range ballistic missile in the desert in the northeast of the country. If the test took place far from Taiwan, its objective could not be more in relation to this specific theater. Indeed, the missiles, which seem to be new versions of the DF-15 already in service for 30 years now, equipped with new conventional warheads with the explicit aim of striking and destroying the communication and command centers of the adversary. It is not known if this is a new more precise version of the DF-15 allowing to strike with a probable circular error of only a few meters a target (against 300 m for the initial DF-15A), in order to eliminate it. with the 750 kg of explosive charge carried by the missile, or if it is a more exotic warhead, such as the use of a munition capable of generating a non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse, particularly suitable in this case precise need.
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