Tai-Hang
38 N 113 E
It is reported that the 2d Artillery Corps has launched a 3,000-km highway transportation test in a bid to improve the DF-31's mobility and camouflage. An uncorroborated analysis by Yang Zheng, National University of Singapore claims that the Chinese media announced in early 1995 the completion of the "Great Wall Project" for China's strategic missile force. The Chinese reports asserted that for over a decade "tens of thousands" of workers had constructed tunnels in a mountain range in Northern China. Yang deduced that the locale of the project was probably the Tai-Hang Mountain Range which lies immediately to the east of the Taiyuan space launch center. Located some 400 km southwest of Beijing between Hebei and Shanxi provinces, the area is characterized by 1,000-2,000 meter-deep gorges and steep bluffs. Yang suggested that the Great Wall Project may have created a network of tunnels up to 5000 kms long in the mountain range. The Project would have included the construction of dozens of missile bases, perhaps including those used for the DF-15s launched against Taiwan. This complex, should it exist, might also be a logical deployment area for the DF-31 and DF-41 ICBMs as they enter operational service.
Sources and Resources
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/china/facility/tai-hang.htm
Maintained by Robert Sherman
Originally created by John Pike
Updated Thursday, June 18, 1998 7:28:51 AM
