Chinese state television has released a video showing the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force firing a DF-26 intermediate-range missile.
The video, filmed during a live-fire exercise somewhere in Northwest China, showed one of two DF-26 missiles which were launched last week.
Speaking to China's Global Times newspaper, military observer and former Rocket Force veteran Song Zhongping said that the DF-26 is capable of altering its flight trajectory, and has guidance systems enabling it to hit a slow-moving aircraft carrier. The rocket's double-cone structure also provides it with stealth capabilities, making it more difficult to intercept, he said.
"An information network connected to the warhead, which possibly includes satellites, ground and naval radar in addition to radar on the missile itself, will constantly update the location of a moving target, informing flight control where to guide the missile," a second, anonymous military expert told the newspaper.
China-US tensions escalated again last week, after the US Navy sailed two vessels through the Taiwan Strait. Beijing has repeatedly called on Washington to stay clear of the strait over concerns that the US was providing military support to Taiwan. Although the island has been a self-governing entity since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, Beijing considers it an integral part of China.
