PLA deploys latest ballistic missile to newest brigade

The People's Liberation Army Rocket Force has established a new brigade and armed it with one of the nation's most powerful ballistic missiles.

A commissioning ceremony was held recently by the PLA Rocket Force at the new brigade's base at an unidentified location to mark the delivery of "a new type of missile", the Rocket Force said in a statement on Monday. The move indicated that the brigade has finished the establishment and trial run phases and has begun to gain full combat capability, it said.

The weapon given to the brigade is a domestically developed, new-generation intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of delivering conventional and nuclear warheads. It can carry out rapid nuclear retaliation as well as precision strikes against ground targets or large ships within an intermediate range, according to the statement.