Local and federal security agencies said Wednesday China’s most recent ballistic missile test poses no immediate threat to Guam.
China's state-run media reported that China has test-fired its ballistic missile nicknamed “Guam Killer,” which it claimed could strike a moving aircraft carrier.
On Thursday, the China Central Television broadcast footage of the Chinese military launching a pair of DF-26 anti-ship missiles during a live-fire exercise in northwest China. The DF-26s are reportedly capable of travelling 4,500 km and can carry a nuclear, conventional or anti-ship warhead and can hit Guam.
“There is no indication the reported test had any connection to Guam or posed an immediate threat to the Marianas,” Homeland Security advisor Tim Aguon said. “GHS/OCD, along with local and federal partners, will continue to monitor the events surrounding the region.”
“The Offices of Guam Homeland Security and Civil Defense, in conjunction with the Mariana Regional Fusion Center, federal and military partners, continue to monitor events surrounding the region including reports of a Chinese state media issued video purporting that China’s military had test-fired an intermediate ballistic missile at an undisclosed location in China’s north-west,” states a press release from GHS/OCD.
According to South China Morning Post, China’s defense ministry in April confirmed the DF-26 had been put into service with the Rocket Force.
Quoting Adam Ni, a China researcher at Macquarie University in Sydney, the SCMP reported that the “latest exercise sent ‘a clear message to the US about China’s growing missile capability, and that it can hold at risk US strategic assets, such as carriers and bases.’”
“It’s an attempt to reinforce the notion that the PLA has the capability to sink US carriers and inflict unacceptable damage on American forces,” the SCMP quoted Ni as saying.