China’s intercontinental ballistic missile test on Wednesday has put the rocket used under the spotlight.
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Beijing has not said what type of rocket was used but, based on photos released a day after the test, military analysts have concluded that it was a variant of the Dong Feng-31.
The DF-31 (whose name means East Wind-31) is one of three types of ICMBs in the People’s Liberation Army’s arsenal – the others being the DF-5, which first entered service in the early 1970s, and the more modern DF-41.
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The three-stage DF-31, which first entered service in 2006, and its variants can carry either a single warhead or a payload carrying three or four smaller warheads that can be released to attack multiple targets.
Wednesday’s launch saw the missile with a dummy warhead travel 12,000km (7,460 miles) from its launch site in Hainan, passing near the Philippines and Guam and landing in the Pacific near the French territory of the Marquesas Islands.