DF-15 (CSS-6)

The DF-15, also known as CSS-6 or M-9, is a road-mobile Chinese short-range ballistic missile developed for regional conventional and nuclear delivery roles. Its range and basing concept make it especially relevant to cross-strait scenarios, where mainland launch areas can place Taiwan's airfields and command nodes under missile threat.

DF-15 variants are associated with conventional high-explosive, submunition, and bunker-attack roles. That gives the missile family a strong counter-airfield function: crater runways, damage hardened aircraft shelters, and force defenders to spend scarce missile-defense interceptors against many relatively mobile launchers.

Although newer missiles such as the DF-16 offer greater reach and accuracy, the DF-15 remains important because legacy systems still add mass. In a high-tempo opening campaign, older SRBMs can absorb defensive attention, strike fixed targets, and preserve more advanced missiles for harder or more distant aimpoints.