Our JL-2 SLBMs have become the fourth type of Chinese nuclear missiles that threaten the continental United States, after our DF-31A, DF-5A and DF-5B ICBM.

This report is from the Washington Times:

Chinese state-run media revealed for the first time [in the last week of October] that Beijing’s nuclear submarines can attack American cities as a means to counterbalance U.S. nuclear deterrence in the Pacific.

On Monday, leading media outlets including China Central TV, the People’s Daily, the Global Times, the PLA Daily, the China Youth Daily and the Guangmin Daily ran identical, top-headlined reports about the “awesomeness” of the People’s Liberation Army navy’s strategic submarine force. …

The article features 30 photos and graphics detailing, among other things, damage projections for Seattle and Los Angeles after being hit by Chinese nuclear warheads and the deadly radiation that would spread all the way to Chicago.

China’s sub fleet is reportedly the world’s second-largest, with about 70 vessels. About 10 are nuclear-powered, and four or more of those are nuclear ballistic submarines capable of launching missiles. …

In the 1980s, China developed its first ballistic missile sub, the Type 092 Xia-class, which has 12 launch tubes for the Julang (Giant Wave)-1 missiles. The JL-1 had a limited range and failed multiple test launches.

In 2010, a new class of missile sub, the Type 094 Jin class, entered the service. It is capable of launching 12 to 16 JL-2 missiles with a range of about 8,700 miles, covering much of the continental U.S. with single or multiple, independently targetable re-entry vehicle warheads.

Chinese calculations for nuclear attacks on the U.S. are chillingly macabre.

“Because the Midwest states of the U.S. are sparsely populated, in order to increase the lethality, [our] nuclear attacks should mainly target the key cities on the West Coast of the United States, such as Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego,” the Global Times said.

“The 12 JL-2 nuclear warheads carried by one single Type 094 SSBN can kill and wound 5 million to 12 million Americans,” the Global Times reported.

China also has developed land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles — notably the DF-31A, which has a range of 7,000 to 7,500 miles.

“If we launch our DF 31A ICBMs over the North Pole, we can easily destroy a whole list of metropolises on the East Coast and the New England region of the U.S., including Annapolis, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Portland, Baltimore and Norfolk, whose population accounts for about one-eighth of America’s total residents,” the Global Times said.

All the state-run press reports stressed the point that the PLA’s missile submarines are now on routine strategic patrol, “which means that China for the first time has acquired the strategic deterrence and second strike capability against the United States.”

Meanwhile, back in Washington, D.C., here‘s what’s happening to US defense. (This is our Facebook 0ne-paragraph summary of the original IBD article.)

At least 197 officers have been fired or removed from duty by this president, including no fewer than nine senior commanding generals this year. Two nuclear ICBM force commanders were sacked in one week recently. U.S. Africa Command head Gen. Carter Ham was shown the door by Obama for questioning orders against a rescue mission in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012, when our ambassador and three other U.S. personnel were killed by Islamist terrorists. Rear Adm. Chuck Gaouette, a carrier strike group commander, was also relieved of his command for assisting forces ordered into action by Ham. Now retired heroes charge he is emasculating the armed forces. So says Patrick Brady, a retired major general who in one day saved 51 seriously wounded soldiers in Vietnam. When such a man severely criticizes his commander-in-chief, he obviously does not do so lightly. His accusations are grave. “This president will never fight if there is any reason to avoid it,” he says. Also speaking candidly is retired Army Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, a veteran of the elite Delta Force who served as deputy under secretary of defense for intelligence under President George W. Bush. He points to the “unprecedented” number of four-star generals relieved of duty over the last three years and warns that the military’s future is at stake since many colonels who would have become generals are also being relieved — or quitting. “Morale is at an unprecedented low,” he says. Retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely is outraged at Obama firing those “who have given their lives for their country,” while protecting incompetent civilian cronies. The hailstorm of criticism is intensifying for a commander-in-chief who is intent on destroying the armed forces just as he has the nation’s health care system.

That excited forecast that Iran could have its nuclear bomb in two weeks – or one, since it’s a week since the forecast was issued – may now have to be revised.

This report of a possibly severe setback for the evil mullahs’ plans comes from DebkaFile:

Tehran did its utmost to conceal the mystery blast which last week struck the heavy water reactor under construction at Arak in western Iran. …

The explosion, whether accidental or not, will delay for a second time the reactor’s first test with real fuel. Tehran informed the International Atomic Energy Agency in August of a previous holdup.

The cause of the blast and the extent of the damage it caused have not yet been established. According to the partial information initially reaching our sources, it occurred inside the reactor building when preparations were underway for a test scheduled for this month with artificial fuel and light water. The site of the explosion may have been the large coolant containers and the pressure gauges attached to the reactor’s core.

Iranian Atomic Council experts and intelligence agents are testing four possible causes of the explosion:

1. Sabotage.

2. A virus planted in the computers that control the systems administering the test.

3. An error in engineering calculations in the design of the coolant containers which underestimated their strength for standing up to the required level of pressure.

4. The deliberate sale to Iran of inferior steel materials that were not strong enough to withstand such pressure.

What cunning supplier might have done that, we wonder.

Last August, Iran informed the nuclear watchdog that the test with real fuel would be the final one before the reactor entered its running-in stage. The damage caused by the explosion will have postponed that stage indefinitely.

The Arak reactor, known as IR-40 and designed for a capacity of 40 megawatt, is the cause of deep concern in Israel because it is capable of producing plutonium for use in nuclear bombs as an alternative to enriched uranium.

This should be good news, but – we bitterly suspect – Obama will not like it.