China: DF-26 missiles deployed after US warship trespassed into territorial waters.

According to CCTV Chinese TV News channel, on Tuesday January 10, 2019, Chinese armed forces have deployed DF-26 ballistic missiles to China’s northwest region after a US warship trespassed into China's territorial waters off the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea on Monday, January 7, 2019.

Chinese army DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile at military parade in Beijing. (Picture source Internet)

The CCTV Chinese TV news channel reported that seven military trucks carrying DF-26 missiles travelling along a road amid rough terrain and sand dunes but did not say when the mobilisation took place.

The DF-26 is an intermediate-range ballistic missile of the Chinese-made Dongfeng (DF) missile family produced by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC). The DF-26 was unveiled for the first time to the public during the military parade of September 3, 2015 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, its existence was confirmed in the mid-2010s but it had already been in service for several years.

The DF-26 is a three-stages solid-fuel missile which has a maximum range from 3,000 to 4,000 km. According Chinese source, the DF-26 can reach a target at a maximum range of 5,000 km, which means it can strike U.S. military bases in Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean or Guam in the Asia-Pacific. It measures 14 meters long with a diameter of 1.4 m and a launch weight of 20 tons.

The DF-26 intermediate-range missile can perform medium-to-long-range precision attack on both land and large-to-medium-sized maritime targets. Its modular features allow for the use of several types of warheads, including two types of nuclear re-entry vehicles, and several conventional warheads each with differing destructive capabilities, such as area attacks for use against airfields and ports, ground penetrators for buried targets, and fuel-air explosives for use against electronic targets.