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  • Chinese Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications

         The People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) and China’s Nuclear Deterrence Capabilities Have Grown Considerably in the Past 15 Years.     Originally, the PLARF was constructed as purely a delivery force for China’s nuclear weapons. However, that role has expanded dramatically in recent

  • Competition with China: PLA Rocket Force

    Part of CASI's "Competition With China" video series which helps Airmen better understand the strategic competition with China broadly, and takes a deep look at many of the military and security aspects of that competition. CASI uses source documents to research and report on China’s aerospace

  • PLA Rocket Force Organization

          The PLA Rocket Force (PLARF), formerly known as the PLA 2nd Artillery Force (PLASAF) until 2016, is responsible for the PLA’s land-based nuclear and conventional ballistic missiles. The Second Artillery Force was officially established in 1966 and given command of China’s small inventory of

  • PLA Rocket Force as a Service: New Team Player or Increasingly Irrelevant?

    CASI's Director of Research, Rod Lee, contributed an article titled, "PLA Rocket Force as a Service: New Team Player or Increasingly Irrelevant?", in the Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute's 2020 PLA conference volume in Roger Cliff and Roy Kamphausen (eds.), Enabling a More Externally

  • PLA Rocket Force Organization- Executive Summary

    While recent scholarship has gone a long way toward demystifying China’s missile force, it remains in many ways a poorly understood phenomenon, with an unusually high degree of censorship even by the already strict standards of the PLA. The following is a brief executive summary of a much longer

  • China's Ballistic Missile Industry

    Along with space and cyber, the missile forces of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) People’s Liberation Army have seen the greatest increase in importance, and funding, over the last two decades. This progress was further emphasized when, as part of the 2015 reforms, the Second Artillery was

  • First PLA Rocket Force CJ-100 Unit Likely Identified

    There is a limited body of evidence that strongly suggests the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) is equipping its 656th Brigade with the CJ-100 cruise missile (alternatively known as the DF-100). This assessment is based on an image of a probable CJ-100 transporter-erector-launcher (TEL)

  • Dr. Mulvaney discusses the missile balance in Asia

    On Wednesday, December 19, the Global Taiwan Institute held a public seminar titled “Comparative Missile Balance in East Asia.” Newspaper articles regularly feature articles about China’s Dong Feng missiles, Taiwan’s Hsiung Feng missiles, North Korea’s Taepodong, South Korea’s Haeseong, and US

  • CASI developing research

    The mission of CASI is to advance understanding of the capabilities, development, operating concepts, strategy, doctrine, personnel, organization, and limitations of China's aerospace forces, which include: the PLA Air Force (PLAAF); PLA Naval Aviation (PLAN Aviation); PLA Rocket Force (PLARF); the