Why does China's Dongfeng-5 intercontinental missile retain liquid fuel, and what are its strategic advantages?

Why does China insist on keeping the old, liquid-fueled Dongfeng series of ICBMs? On this issue, we need to have a deep understanding of the fuel types of ICBMs. There are two main types of fuel for ICBMs: solid fuel and liquid fuel. Solid fuels, as their name suggests, are made up of solid substances that release energy during combustion. A significant advantage of this fuel is the extremely short time for combat readiness. Once stored, solid fuel can be quickly loaded onto ICBMs, making them highly mobile and stealthy, making it difficult for adversaries to determine their exact location.

For example, the mainland's Dongfeng-41 ICBM and the Julang series of ICBMs carried by nuclear submarines use solid fuel. Because of their rapid combat readiness and high mobility, these missiles have become an important part of the mainland's strategic deterrent forces.

However, despite the many advantages of solid fuels, liquid fuels still have an irreplaceable position in the field of intercontinental missiles. Although liquid fuel is more complex in terms of storage and transportation, its high energy density can provide more powerful thrust, allowing the missile to carry a heavier warhead or achieve a longer range, and the liquid fuel can be precisely adjusted as needed during the refueling process before the missile launch, thus ensuring the missile's precision strike capability.

Therefore, China retains the Dongfeng series of intercontinental missiles using liquid fuel, not only to ensure the diversity of strategic deterrent forces, but also to meet the needs of different combat scenarios. This strategy enables the mainland to flexibly respond to various challenges and safeguard its national security and interests in the face of a complex and ever-changing international security environment.

These missiles swim like ghosts all the time, making it extremely difficult for adversaries to track them down and destroy them. In particular, the DF-41 intercontinental missile shows three different launch methods: road, railway, and underground well. Once the launch command is received, the missile vehicle can respond quickly, and the missile will fly straight into the sky like an arrow from the string, sending the target to the door with precision like an east wind express. This high degree of mobility and flexibility makes the DF-41 occupy a pivotal position in strategic deterrence.

Solid-fuel missiles also have certain limitations, the most notable of which is their relatively low specific impulse. Specific impulse is one of the key indicators to evaluate the performance of missiles, which is directly related to the speed, range and reliability of missiles. Due to the many limitations in the structural design of solid missiles, it is often difficult for their specific impulse to reach the ideal state.

In contrast, liquid-fueled missiles have demonstrated superior performance. Liquid fuels are designed to be more flexible and enable higher specific impulses, giving missiles superior speed, range, and reliability. This enables liquid-fueled missiles to perform better in complex and changeable battlefield environments.

Although solid-fuel missiles have the advantages of rapid combat readiness and high mobility, the advantages of liquid-fuel missiles in key performance such as specific impulse make it inevitable for China to retain the Dongfeng series of intercontinental missiles using liquid fuel. This strategy not only ensures the diversity of the mainland's strategic deterrent forces, but also improves the overall performance of the missile.

Liquid missiles and solid missiles show significant performance differences in refueling units. In terms of speed, range and reliability, liquid missiles undoubtedly show their superiority, and their direct injection and ignition point characteristics are also quite prominent, and the storage of liquid fuel is difficult, and it is impossible to integrate the missile and fuel in advance, and the fuel needs to be refueled at launch. This characteristic limited the missile's mobility flexibility, allowing it to operate only in stationary missile silos, and the process of refueling was relatively complex, resulting in a relatively long combat readiness time for liquid missiles.

Since liquid missiles rely on missile silos for launch, which are often easily detected and damaged by adversary satellites, this affects their survivability to a certain extent. Nevertheless, liquid missiles are more suitable for active strike missions due to their high specific impulse characteristics.

Relatively speaking, solid missiles have a lower specific impulse, but their survivability is stronger, and solid missiles are more suitable for secondary strike and counterattack missions. Solid missiles have a short combat readiness time, high maneuverability and are able to quickly respond to various operational needs.

This is why Russia is still committed to upgrading the Satan ICBM, on top of the many solid missiles it already has. Looking back at history, after China successfully tested an intercontinental missile in the 70s of the last century, it became one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. However, although India now has ICBMs, it has not been able to join the bandwagon. The crux of the matter is that the possession of nuclear weapons or intercontinental missiles is not the only criterion for determining whether a country can enter the market. At the heart of the P5 is its veto power, which reflects the reality of the world's political landscape and strategic balance.

The United States is undoubtedly the superpower of the world today, and its influence is particularly prominent in the Americas, the Middle East, and even the world. Russia, although it is not as good as the Soviet Union during the Cold War, is still influential in Central Asia and Eastern Europe, as the main successor state of the Soviet Union. As for Britain and France, they have a deep historical background and strong influence in Africa, Europe and other places, which is why they occupy an important position on the international stage.

Therefore, whether or not a country has nuclear weapons or intercontinental missiles is only a manifestation of a country's strength, and what really determines a country's status and influence in international politics is its role in the global political pattern and strategic balance.

As the only permanent member of the UN Security Council in Asia, China's status is not easy to gain, but is based on deep influence and strength. The P5 countries may appear to be at odds on the outside, but they show solidarity whenever they are challenged by non-P5 countries. Historically, it is not difficult to see that it is extremely rare for all of the P5 countries to vote in favor, and the Libyan civil war was one of them. The well-known Gaddafi, who paid a heavy price for offending the P5 countries, was eventually sanctioned and tragically killed. This fully demonstrates the power of the veto power of the P5 countries. If one of the countries votes against it, the resolution will not be passed, no matter how important. Abstention, of course, would not have any effect on the adoption of the resolution. Therefore, becoming a permanent member requires not only strong strength and extensive influence, but also careful management of relations with the P5 countries to avoid falling into difficulties.