Chinese state media releases key details about DF-5 nuclear weapons

China’s state broadcaster CCTV has for the first time released some of the key specifications of one of the country’s nuclear weapons.

China’s nuclear programme has traditionally been highly secretive, particularly regarding specific missile capabilities and deployments, and it was not clear why the information about the DF-5, an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), was made public.

Official disclosures typically use vague language, avoiding precise details about the weapons but Monday’s broadcast disclosed that the two-stage missile, which it described as China’s “first-generation strategic ICBM”, could deliver a single nuclear warhead with an explosive yield of between 3 and 4 megatons of TNT.

It added that the missile had a maximum range of 12,000km (7,460 miles) – enough to strike the continental United States and western Europe – and was accurate to within 500 metres (1,600 feet), a critical factor according to modern military doctrines.

It added that the missile was “32.6 metres in length with a diameter of 3.35 metres and a launch weight of 183 tonnes”.

The missile’s warhead yield – up to 4 megatons – is roughly 200 times greater than the atomic bombs dropped by the US on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

Former People’s Liberation Army instructor Song Zhongping said the missile, which was developed in the early 1970s and entered service in 1981, played a critical role in China’s nuclear deterrence strategy.