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DF-16 missiles, pictured during a 2015 parade, were featured in a video posted by Beijing’s Defence Ministry last week, which showed them being deployed during exercises over the Lunar New Year holiday. File photo: AP

New Chinese missile capable of threatening US, Japan bases in Asia makes latest appearance in drills

Beijing posts video of medium range DF-16 with a range of 1,000km – within striking distance of Okinawa, home to several US military installations, Taiwan and Philippines

A highly accurate Chinese ballistic missile capable of threatening US and Japanese bases in Asia has made its latest appearance at recent Rocket Force drills.

The medium-range DF-16 featured in a video posted last week on the website of China’s Defence Ministry showing the missiles aboard their 10-wheeled mobile launch vehicles being deployed in deep forest during exercises over the Lunar New Year holiday.

While the Rocket Force boasts an extensive armoury of missiles of various ranges, the DF-16 fills a particular role in extending China’s reach over waters it seeks to control within what it calls the “first-island chain”.

First displayed at a Beijing military parade in 2015, the missile is believed to have a range of 1,000km, putting it within striking distance of Okinawa, home to several US military installations, as well as the Japanese home islands, Taiwan and the Philippines.

The two-stage DF-16 replaces the older, shorter range DF-11, with a final stage that can adjust its trajectory to strike slow moving targets and evade anti-missile defences such as the US Patriot system deployed by Taiwan.

It also carries up to three warheads weighing as much as a tonne and carrying conventional high explosives or a nuclear weapon.

Further increasingly its lethality, the missile is believed to be accurate to within as little as 5 metres of the target – similar to that of a cruise missile.

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