Dragon’s Teeth and Dragon’s Brain continues....

Taking a look at these two deployment sites individually, the Delingha deployment area stretches approximately 52 km, covering 1,000 sq km west of the city of Delingha. It has a total of 36 launch pads, all along three roads extending north from the main road. Delingha was

earlier a DF-4 launch site. The Da Qaidam deployment are stretches for

more than 100 km west of the city of Da Qaidam Zhen, all the way past

Mahai, covering an area of 1,100 sq km. A total of 22 launch pads are

located alongside and to the north of the main road.

Launch pads: The large circular 70 m diameter full circular pads are

probably for the older liquid-fuelled DF-3 and DF-4 missiles, which are

now being phased out and replaced by the solid-fueled DF-21 and DF-

31 missiles. The DF-21 has a range of 2,150 km, and the DF-31 has a

range of 8,000 km. The DF-31 has not been reported in the Delingha

and Da Qaidam areas, but its smaller predecessor, the DF-21 has been

deployed there for the last several years, and can be launched from the

small 15-meter diameter pads. The DF-21 launcher is approximately 13

m long, while the DF-31 launcher is about 23 m long.

To be continued....