Summary and Key Points: China’s expanding arsenal of medium and intermediate-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs/IRBMs), like the Dongfeng series, poses a significant threat to US and allied forces in the Indo-Pacific.
-These missiles endanger critical assets like runways and naval fleets, potentially neutralizing US force projection capabilities, especially concerning Taiwan and the South China Sea.

SiAW missile. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
-While countermeasures like enhanced missile defense, drone swarms, and rapid repair training are crucial, recent purges revealed corruption hampering PLA Rocket Force readiness.
-Despite this, China continues rapid expansion, necessitating increased US investment, strategic adaptation, and transparency about the risks to maintain deterrence and regional stability.
China’s Massive Missile Force Takes Aim at US Power in the Pacific
China currently has one of the world’s top military capabilities, with force projection power to upend the quiet storm in the Indo-Pacific. China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army, and its navy, the PLAN, have a wide variety of assets that threaten dozens of countries in the region, including medium—and intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMS and MRBMs).
China’s medium—and intermediate-range ballistic missiles are a critical asset in the PLA’s arsenal and a countermeasure against growing U.S.-Backed regional alliances and partnerships. They could be used in several brewing conflicts in the Taiwan Strait, the Luzon Strait, and the South China Sea. Indo-Pacific countries and the United States should focus on figuring out ways to defend and counteract Beijing’s growing rocket force.
China’s Growing Ballistic Missile Fleet and Capabilities
The People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) currently utilizes an estimated 1,300 medium-range ballistic missiles called Dongfeng (DF). The People’s Republic created the DF through the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, which uses different variations of the Dongfeng depending on mission needs.
In the PLA’s intermediate-range ballistic missile inventory, Beijing uses four variations of Dongfeng: the DF-3, DF-4, DF-25, and DF-26. The DF-3 was China’s first modern missile, entering service in 1971, and enabled further testing and research to create the other variants.
The IRBMs have variations that range from 1,700 kilometers to 5,500 kilometers, though the later DF IRBM variants are more effective in achieving the target. The DF-26 is different from the others as the missiles are capable of nuclear payload.
China’s MRBMs include the DF-2, DF-17, and DF-21. The DF-2, the first MRBM variant, was nuclear-capable but replaced with the upgraded DF-21 in the late 1970s. DF-21 missiles include variants A, B, C, and D, with the latter focusing on anti-ship operations. The DF-17, the most modern MRBM in service since 2019, can be used with mobility and has both conventional and nuclear warheads capable of a distance of 2,500 kilometers.
How the Missiles Pose a Threat in the Indo-Pacific
A hallmark of American deterrence doctrine and force projection is the ability to respond to any crisis on Earth through aerial and naval superiority, which will be threatened under China’s missile threat. The extent of Beijing’s IRBMS and MRBMs immediately threatens U.S. bases in the vicinity of the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, where the PLAN is militarizing, which makes recalibrating contingencies even more urgent.
United States Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) currently has critical assets such as runways, naval fleets, and fixed-wing aircraft such as the F-35 stationed near the PLA’s missiles, which could be targeted in the event the latter decides to conduct armed operations against Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan, or the Philippines.

DF-17. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
The PLA’s strategy of denying American superiority could first include destroying critical assets such as runways in Japan and other theaters before switching to hangars. This would leave America’s navy—particularly aircraft carriers in the Pacific—vulnerable to attack, which could give Beijing key freedom of movement with aerial supremacy, especially if the PLA plans to naval blockade Taiwan that only the U.S. Air Force could break.
China’s growing missile capabilities effectively hamper freedom of movement for various countries in the Indo-Pacific, bringing discussions in the U.S. Congress for the military to analyze methods to reinforce hardened hangers and aircraft shelters. Still, a significant conundrum remains—runways are always vulnerable to the PLA’s missiles.
Another major PLA aim is to damage aircraft runways with aerial refueling capabilities. By removing those specific logistical capabilities, the PLA could hamper refueling for America’s fifth-generation fighters, such as the F-35s, which could turn the tide in a war if the U.S. and China were intertwined in one.
Can we Counteract the Missile Threat?
To counteract China’s vast medium and intermediate-range missiles, which pose the closest threats, the United States will need to spend more on missile defense and out-strategize the PLA. With Beijing adapting to Washington’s struggles, the U.S. and its regional allies and partners must also adapt to the People’s Republic.
Probing ways to counteract China’s growing missile capabilities, the Stimson Center published a December 2024 strategy stating that America and its regional allies should hinder China’s surface-to-surface capabilities by producing more air defense and drone swarms. Furthermore, enhanced laser weapons development can help supplement air defense systems.
Sustained training should be prioritized for all maintenance crews and pilots to simulate events of PLA missiles striking runways and hangers so U.S. troops and other allied Indo-Pacific militaries can have contingencies on quick rebuilding, mobilizing assets in a prompt matter and rebuilding efforts in the event of war. Nevertheless, Beijing’s vaunted missiles are not entirely the same as the PLA’s rocket arsenal, which suffers from a key weakness—backdoor corruption.

Chinese DF-17 missiles. Image: Chinese internet.
In late December 2023, Beijing purged China’s defense minister and other senior ranking officers and officials due to corruption in the PLA’s rocket force capabilities. According to a January 2024 Bloomberg report with sources, the reason behind the purges was an ample number of missiles filled with water instead of fuel, which hampers the functionality and impact of the DFs.
Nevertheless, the PLARF is adaptable, and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping is making his motives more transparent and efficient. Heather Williams, director of nuclear issues for the Center for Strategic International Studies, noted that the PLARF rapidly expanded its missile capabilities in 2023 despite corruption and could use military means more than its economic and diplomatic soft power to expand its influence and interests.
Current Assessments
The People’s Liberation Army continues to expand by building a military capable of force projection in the Indo-Pacific and future endeavors across various theaters, such as Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. By utilizing its medium and intermediate-range rocket force, the PLARF could eliminate key hangers, runways, and bases in Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea and threaten the freedom of movement of the U.S. Seventh Fleet.
The United States and other countries in the Indo-Pacific need to invest in further air defense capabilities, drone swarms, and defensive measures to protect key assets from missile strikes. Outspending, outthinking, and outmaneuvering the PLA should be a priority for the Pentagon in the future as Beijing analyzes weak spots in American indecisiveness.
A policy recommendation should be strategic ambiguity and maintaining the deterrence threshold over China, emphasizing that the threat of attacking American bases could be reciprocated against bases in the mainland and outlying islands. Nevertheless, the U.S. government should be transparent about the PLARF’s rocket force to constituents and military personnel by stating not every missile will be shot down in the event of war with China, and there will be casualties.
About the Author: Julian McBride
Julian McBride, a 19FortyFive Contributing Editor, is a forensic anthropologist and independent journalist born in New York. He is the founder and director of the Reflections of War Initiative (ROW), an anthropological NGO that aims to tell the stories of the victims of war through art therapy. As a former Marine, he uses this technique not only to help heal PTSD but also to share people’s stories through art, which conveys “the message of the brutality of war better than most news organizations.”

Jim
April 13, 2025 at 11:05 am
Lot’s and lot’s of Chinese missiles all with ranges well over the 100 miles or so to Taiwan and with range to spare for the sea-approaches to Taiwan.
The missile force outlined in the article is, along with the rest of China’s military, directed towards the aim of reunifying Taiwan with the mainland. Xi in his formal speeches to the People’s Congress (their rubber-stamp legislature) call for the reunification of Taiwan and specifically state China’s military buildup is for the purpose of reunifying Taiwan and China.
There have been reports the Navy is running low on missiles in the Red Sea.
There are also sources who claim a war against China over Taiwan, whether blockade (the most likely) or invasion, would exhaust our Navy missile stockpiles and reserves in about two weeks.
China has an arsenal which won’t run out in two weeks.
What then?
A hard choice: tactical nuclear weapons. Or either admitting defeat and China takes Taiwan or hunkering down and going into a war-time economy with all resources focused on our own missile and other weapons buildup for an eventual attempt to liberate Taiwan.
None of the above guarantee a victory.
That’s the problem, almost all hawkish China analysts overestimate the U. S. military ability against China.
They simply think the U. S. has to take the field (the water) and we’ll win…
… completely unrealistic and dangerous. Naivety, we can’t afford it.
Swamplaw Yankee
April 14, 2025 at 4:42 am
The Democrats need to be congratulated for creating this Han CCP. Yes, the Democrats played Papa when Roosevelt was left alone in the same room with Stalin and suddenly Stalin had the USA approval to funnel the huge store of Imperial Japanese military Hardwar to the tiny deviant cabal lead by Mao Tse Tung.
Yes, the famous Democrat unilateral move that betrayed Churchill and the WEST. Now, the claim is that Roosevelt was brain comatose or near brain dead at this meeting. Perhaps only Hiss knew.
So, will the current Han CCP turn on their papa? Or will the other papa Stalin be their CCP inspiration?
As the chief magistrate of the WEST has abdicated his moral position, the WEST is left dangling while trying to interpret the antics of the 3 stooges routines coming out of the MAGA elite cabal.
Canada demands to be powerless and never ever reach a 5% GNP for defence. Mexico refuses to even speak about the statements made by Chuck Devore. So, the Mexican will take the active roles they played in WW1 + WW2.
The USA facilitated the start of the 2014 attack on Ukraine by unilaterally green lighting the free, no-cost, giveaway of ancient Ukrainian soil and families to the prime cold war enemy, the orc muscovite elite. The kidnap of Ukrainian children was facilitated by this Obama Democrat unilateral treason of the WEST. The USA deep state knew that their own ability for waging war was only a month long at the very best.
Today, the WEST is fully vulnerable because the USA fingers the production of Patriot Missiles to near zero. Ukraine and the WEST are defenceless because they need more patriot missiles to stop the orc muscovite butchers than are produced.
While Ukraine will solve this in the future, the article deals with today. The author thumps that the Yankee MSM needs to baby feed the sheltered Yankee with the daily news that Ukrainians face every day.
The USA refuses to provide Patriot defence missiles to Ukraine and therefore a percentage of orc muscovite missiles land on + kill Ukrainian civilians. The USA joe blow needs to understand that Han CCP seriously can land missiles anywhere in Canada and Mexico and any point in between. Hit a nuclear plant and the Yankee will run or glow green. Or, is it the MAGA elite cabal that needs to immediately know how green glows your valley.
The old fairy tale in America about WW2 needs to stop. WW2 raged for 3 years as Newfoundland and Canuck lads and lasses were maimed and killed protecting the Yankee Yelllooou Belliiiiie right to be cowards. It was hard to stomach to be nice, polite and courteous to the face of USA cowards who blabbed about their fantasy of Russian Commissars killing millions of Ukrainians when the Commies buddied up with the NAZI.
Ukrainians were the most killed ethnic group in WW2. Zip actually happened to the Yankees in WW2 in comparison. Today, the Ukrainians die for the Yellooou Belliiiiie in America. The Yankee population needs to be shipped free of charge for a week vacation in Kherson. The orc muscovite russian Human Safari will kill a lot of Americans with drones but the Yankee survivors might awaken, start to immediately appreciate the HAN CCP military capability. -30 –
Lester Deer
April 14, 2025 at 7:33 am
A way to at least stall the Chinese use of their tactical ballistic missiles would be to announce during the run up to the conflict that the US has gone to “launch on warning” status with our nuclear inventory and put the bombers back up on a rotating alert near Chinese airspace. Tell them that any detected ballistic missile launch will be taken as a strategic attack on the US and responded to with overwhelming force. As tactics go, it’s an ugly baby and has the potential to blow up (literally), but if their missiles are that good/dangerous it might be worth it.
Ronald Gaglia
April 14, 2025 at 10:13 am
Awesome blog! Do you have any helpful hints for aspiring writers? I’m planning to start my own site soon but I’m a little lost on everything. Would you propose starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for a paid option? There are so many choices out there that I’m totally overwhelmed .. Any tips? Thanks!
Jim
April 14, 2025 at 10:27 am
Nuclear war isn’t worth it.
But as I commented, many simply can’t fathom anything other than the U. S. gets what it wants by “saber-rattling” or what ever it takes.
This attitude is a freight train heading straight for a massive train wreck…
Taiwan isn’t worth it… and, never has been worth a hemispheric war which can easily tip over into a nuclear confrontation… or war.
Something else, nobody “lost” China in the immediate aftermath of WW II. George C. Marshall, Secretary of State, at the time, was no Commie. He was told by the Pentagon that to prop-up the Nationalists in China would take 200,000 American soldiers… nobody in Washington or across the country wanted to have U. S. Army soldiers in China fighting against the Communists.
Why did the Communists win? Warlord capitalism (the Nationalists) was a thin gruel for the peasants and, thus, the Communists rallied more Chinese to the Communist flag than the Nationalist flag and, the rest is history.
SSQII 1000 Ship Navy 2018
April 14, 2025 at 11:48 am
Hit them where they are weakest, they have an economy based on exports via a fleet of over two thousand merchant ships and no global navy to protect that trade. If they attack Taiwan, have ready a plan to seize all those ships as war prizes and turn them around to use against them, while mining the seas around Taiwan with mine-torpedoes and encapsulated aerial missiles to hit highest priority military targets AND the exposed real estate of the thousand billionaires that allow the Communist Party to exist at the present but NOT in that future.
Wait for the PRC missile force to get hunted down and reduced before launching any necessary counterattack with the carriers-amphibs-ddg’s under an umbrella of SM-3/SM-9 ABM’s to shoot down remaining IRBM’s.
RTColorado
April 14, 2025 at 12:14 pm
The Chinese traditionally think in the long term and that kind of thinking lends itself to survival in the long term. The key then is to threaten China’s long-term survival. Link China’s long-term survival to it’s short-term actions. Let China know that if it attacks US assets that will trigger an all-out nuclear war with the United States. If China attempts to invade Taiwan and the US comes to Taiwan’s aid, China would do well not to attack US assets or risk an all out nuclear response, not a proportional or graduated response but the entire weight of the United States nuclear capability, minus what the US throws at Russia and North Korea, no reason not to include them too.
Swamplaw Yankee
April 15, 2025 at 1:32 am
The USA lost a, inter alia, continent with their conduct in/after WW2.
The USA was finally given an honourable escape path by the Japanese Emperor on Dec. 7, 1941. Otherwise the Yelloooou Belliiiie Boys would have danced the Mariachi with their amigos till 1944 0r 1945.
It is clear that the USA had the technology for military might. The USA was needed to assume the role of chief magistrate of the WEST. What did they do: the inner beltway looked at Bolshevik redlines every time Stalin pulled down his p—-. Oh, ah, what redlines.
The USA refused to contradict the unilateral Roosevelt treason to the Nationalist cabal in the Han population. The USA then refused to rescue Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria, the whole Far EAST from Bolshevik butchery.
Stalin even advised Mao on the easy technique of Redlining the Yankee mentality. It worked. The Yankee folded up every time the ancient Tibet ethnic faithful begged for their survival from the Han CCP Genociders.
That the Yankee refused to use the psychological power of the bomb is a expose of the coward. Then, the little treason of a free gift to Stalin; technology transfer of the atomic bomb.
It is a lesson for anyone remotely following the Yankee sell out of Ukraine. That the fact of the 2014 Obama unilateral, free, no-cost, giveaway of the ancient Ukrainian soil of Crimea to the prime cold war enemy, the orc muscovite elite, is now denied by the USA control cabal, is a lesson for the logical observer.
Yes, the USA “lost” many ethnic nations, their land mass, since the March 1939 start of WW2! The debate for tomorrow is who was how, when, where ignorant, malicious and/or traitors. It is so strange that the USA maintains in the Smithsonian a zero gallery of Kim Philby types, traitors that ran off to the Redliner’s Shangra La! -30-
Jim Brown
April 16, 2025 at 9:22 am
Talking of really infamous spies, sleepers, moles and even the fictional Smiley, Bond and Bourne, one day Donald J Trump will eclipse them all. Why? Credible revelations from seven former KGB/FSB officers about Donald J Trump being a KGB agent or asset (codenamed Krasnov) since the 1970s were published recently on TheBurlingtonFiles website at https://theburlingtonfiles.org/news_2025.03.16.php.
The following KGB/FSB officers and defectors have disclosed (at great personal risk) that Donald Trump was a KGB/FSB agent or asset decades before he first became President of the USA: Yuri Shvets (KGB Major); Oleg Kalugin (KGB General); Alexander Litvinenko (assassinated FSB Officer); Viktor Suvorov (GRU Officer); Boris Karpichkov (KGB Major); Sergei Tretyakov (SVR Officer); and Alnur Mussayev (Kazakhstan’s KNB (National Security Committee) Chief). Perhaps things would have been different if Trump had read the enigmatic fact based spy thriller Beyond Enkription in TheBurlingtonFiles.
brazilian mounjaro
April 21, 2025 at 3:15 am
I appreciate, cause I found exactly what I was looking for. You’ve ended my four day long hunt! God Bless you man. Have a nice day. Bye