Satellite Images Show China Building Desert Launch Pads Near Nuclear Silos

Satellite images reviewed by Reuters show China constructing more than 80 launch pads, bunkers and communications facilities near isolated nuclear silos in the Xinjiang region. The pads sit within two octagon-shaped military installations southwest of the Hami silo fields, one roughly 140 kilometers away and the other about 230 kilometers distant.

Dirt roads and conduits link the pads to the octagons, which contain housing, vehicle storage and fortified weapons areas.

Images indicate the pads could support mobile missile launchers, air-defense batteries or electronic-warfare equipment. Exercises involving large military vehicles occurred around the northern octagon in April and this month. A third octagon south of the Lop Nur test site appears less developed and is used as a target range.

Five security analysts interviewed by Reuters said the infrastructure could serve nuclear operations as well as other military purposes, though exact weapons and functions remain unknown.

” Tong Zhao, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the octagons and towers may support command, control and communications functions tied to the Hami ICBM site.

China maintains a no-first-use nuclear policy and fields silo-based, submarine and air-delivered weapons. The Pentagon’s December report estimated China is on track to field 1,000 warheads by 2030 and has likely loaded 100 ICBMs across its three main silo fields.

China’s defense ministry did not respond to questions about the imagery. The Pentagon declined to comment on intelligence matters. The scale of the desert network distinguishes China’s approach from the United States and Russia, which rely more on silo numbers and hardening than extensive supporting infrastructure, Kristensen said.