With this new missile, China could join the ranks of the world's most dangerous nuclear arsenals

In its 2018 report on China's military, the Department of Defense revealed that the People's Liberation Army Air Force had been re-assigned a nuclear mission.

"The PLA is upgrading its aircraft with two new air-launched ballistic missiles, one of which may include a nuclear payload," the Pentagon explained in its 2019 report. "Its deployment and integration would, for the first time, provide China with a viable nuclear 'triad' of delivery systems dispersed across land, sea, and air forces."

The Diplomat reports that this new ALBM is a two-stage, solid-fueled ballistic missile with a range of 3,000 km designated by US intelligence as CH-AS-X-13. The weapon has been tested aboard a modified H-6K bomber identified as H6X1/H-6N.

China has four operational Type 094 Jin-class submarines, with another two being outfitted at Huludao Shipyard, the Department of Defense reports. These boats are armed with JL-2 submarine-launched ballistic missiles, what the Pentagon calls China's "first viable sea-based nuclear deterrent."

China has already started testing new, longer-range JL-3 SLBMs that will arm the next-generation Type 096 submarines.

It is unclear if Chinese ballistic missile submarines conduct deterrence patrols, but the Pentagon operates on the assumption that they do. These assets are under the control of the People's Liberation Army Navy.