BEIJING: China’s newly-formed Rocket Force has held an exercise with an advanced DF-16 medium-range ballistic missile with a range of over 1,000 km that could threaten a number countries, including India, Japan and the US.
Significantly the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which is secretive about its weapons systems, has released a video of the recent exercise of its troops employing the advanced DF-16 medium-range ballistic missile.
China’s Rocket Force is a special contingent to handle a range of missiles in its military’s arsenal.
Several launch vehicles carrying the ballistic missiles were seen in the footage released to show the training of Rocket Force missile brigade soldiers around the Spring Festival holiday.
The participating units handled a number of scenarios, including chemical/biological contamination, countering satellite reconnaissance and electronic jamming, state-run China Daily reported on Monday.
Two types of DF-16 appeared in the exercise. The video represents the third time the DF-16 has been shown to the public.
The missile made its debut at a military parade in Beijing in September 2015.
In July, a television news programme showed General Fan Changlong, a vice-chairman of the central military commission, inspecting a DF-16 unit of the southern theatre command.
Though the PLA has never disclosed its ballistic missiles’ specifications, experts said the DF-16 poses a challenge to foreign military installations along the first island chain, which is what the Chinese military calls the series of islands that stretch from Japan in the north to Taiwan and the Philippines to the south.
