Page Reader AI | Chinese tests show nuclear bunkers are not what they used to be, with earth-penetrating weapons on the rise

Chinese tests show nuclear bunkers are not what they used to be, with earth-penetrating weapons on the rise | South China Morning Post

AI Summary Hide AI Generated Summary

Key Findings

A new Chinese research facility simulates attacks by earth-penetrating nuclear weapons, demonstrating their ability to damage deep underground defense facilities. Tests showed a simulated tunnel over 2km deep was heavily damaged by the equivalent of five consecutive strikes, an outcome previously considered impossible. This challenges the notion that existing bunkers, like Cheyenne Mountain in the US or Russia's Ural Mountain facility, are invulnerable.

Outdated Safety Standards

The rapid advancement of earth-penetrating weapon technology renders existing safety standards outdated and has underestimated the impact of nuclear weapons. Previously, it was believed that ground-penetrating weapons couldn't reach beyond 40 meters. This research highlights a significant threat to previously considered secure facilities.

China's Research

The research, published in the Chinese Journal of Rock Mechanics and Engineering, was conducted by Li Jie, lead project scientist with the Army Engineering University of PLA. The project aims to understand the destructive capabilities of these new weapons and improve defensive strategies accordingly.

China has built a new research facility to simulate an attack by nuclear bunker-busting weapons and learn how they damage defence facilities, even those built at extreme depths, according to military scientists involved in the project.

In the past, shelters buried several hundred metres deep were rated nuclear-proof but the Chinese test facility shows that a tunnel more than 2km (1.24 miles) under the surface could be destroyed, according to the researchers.

In one test, the simulated tunnel almost crumbled after taking hits the effective equivalent of five consecutive strikes by earth-penetrating nuclear weapons, an outcome that would have once been considered impossible.

For instance, the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, home to the North American Aerospace Defence Command, was dubbed by the US military as the “most secure facility in the world” because it was protected by granite above more than 500 metres (1,600 feet) thick.

The Russian government’s doomsday shelter was buried 300 metres deep in the Ural Mountains. West of Beijing, China’s Joint Battle Command Centre, for extra precaution, was built in natural karst caves about 2km underground.

Openly available information suggests most ground-penetrating weapons could not reach a depth beyond 40 metres (130 feet).

But with the recent rapid development of technology, existing safety standards may be outdated and have “severely underestimated the actual impact” of nuclear weapons, said Li Jie, lead project scientist with the Army Engineering University of PLA in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, in a paper published in the peer-reviewed Chinese Journal of Rock Mechanics and Engineering last week.