Key Pentagon China Military Power Report Reveal: DF-27 Conventional ICBM Has ASBM Variant & Can Range Part of CONUS
The Pentagon’s new China Military Power Report focuses on concisely reviewing new PLA and related developments (rather than rehashing previous years’s analysis or providing general background). The 2025 edition (25th in the series) has some of the most extensive and informative infographics ever.
More analysis to follow, but two disclosures alone makes the report worth reviewing carefully!
- China’s DF-27 conventional ICBM is one of 4 types of PRC missiles to have an ASBM variant.
- The DF-27’s 8,000-km maximum-stated range covers not only Alaska and Hawaii, but also part of CONUS.
p. 85 (screenshot below) reveals the DF-27 conventional intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) to be China’s longest-range anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM)—with a range of 5,000-8,000 km: way across the Pacific. The DF-27’s 8,000-km maximum-stated range covers not only Alaska and Hawaii, but also part of the Continental United States (CONUS).
Like China’s shorter-range DF-17 and DF-21 medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs), and DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), the DF-27 ICBM has both land-attack and anti-ship targeting capabilities. Anti-ship targeting capabilities make at least one variant of each of these ballistic missiles an ASBM.
- For background on China’s ASBM program, click here.
- Download a full-text PDF of my book on the subject here.
- For previous PRC interest in, and doctrinal discussion of, a conventional ICBM, see Andrew S. Erickson, “China’s Approach to Conventional Deterrence,” Chapter 1 in Roy D. Kamphausen, ed., Modernizing Deterrence: How China Coerces, Compels, and Deters (Seattle, WA: National Bureau of Asian Research, 2023), 12–27.
- Download and search full text of chapter here: https://bit.ly/ChinaConventionalICBM
