marchwarden/docs/stress-tests/M3.3-runs/17-scope.log
Jeff Smith 13215d7ddb docs(stress-tests): M3.3 Phase A — calibration data collection
Issue #46 (Phase A only — Phase B human rating still pending, issue stays open).

Adds the data-collection half of the calibration milestone:

- scripts/calibration_runner.sh — runs 20 fixed balanced-depth queries
  across 4 categories (factual, comparative, contradiction-prone,
  scope-edge), 5 each, capturing per-run logs to docs/stress-tests/M3.3-runs/.
- scripts/calibration_collect.py — loads every persisted ResearchResult
  under ~/.marchwarden/traces/*.result.json and emits a markdown rating
  worksheet with one row per run. Recovers question text from each
  trace's start event and category from the run-log filename.
- docs/stress-tests/M3.3-rating-worksheet.md — 22 runs (20 calibration
  + caffeine smoke + M3.2 multi-axis), with empty actual_rating columns
  for the human-in-the-loop scoring step.
- docs/stress-tests/M3.3-runs/*.log — runtime logs from the calibration
  runner, kept as provenance. Gitignore updated with an exception
  carving stress-test logs out of the global *.log ignore.

Note: M3.1's 4 runs predate #54 (full result persistence) and so are
unrecoverable to the worksheet — only post-#54 runs have a result.json
sibling. 22 rateable runs is still within the milestone target of 20–30.

Phases B (human rating) and C (analysis + rubric + wiki update) follow
in a later session. This issue stays open until both are done.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-04-08 20:21:47 -06:00

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Researching: What is the actual operational doctrine of Chinese DF-41 ICBM
brigades?
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╭─────────────────────────────────── Answer ───────────────────────────────────╮
│ Chinese DF-41 ICBM brigade operational doctrine encompasses several key │
│ elements based on open-source intelligence and defense analysis: │
│ │
│ **Basing and Mobility**: DF-41 brigades operate under a tri-basing doctrine │
│ employing road-mobile, rail-mobile, and silo-based launchers. The │
│ road-mobile variant uses the Tian HTF5980 16×16 wheeled chassis. Silo │
│ construction has accelerated since 2021 with three new solid-fuel ICBM silo │
│ fields identified in northern China. [Sources: MDAA, CSIS Missile Threat, │
│ FAS] │
│ │
│ **Alert Posture and Launch Doctrine**: The PLARF is working to implement a │
│ launch-on-warning (LOW) posture. Brigades now strive to keep at least part │
│ of their force in a higher state of readiness, representing a significant │
│ shift from China's historically relaxed alert posture where warheads were │
│ stored separately from missiles. [Sources: Air University/PLARF Nuclear │
│ Warhead Management, NDU] │
│ │
│ **Warhead Management**: Historically, Chinese ICBMs stored warheads │
│ separately from missiles ('de-mated'). The shift toward LOW requires │
│ warheads to be mated or at least rapidly mateable to delivery systems. As of │
│ the 2025 FAS Nuclear Notebook, China possesses approximately 600 warheads, │
│ with DF-41 launchers armed with either a single ~1 MT warhead or up to 10 │
│ MIRV warheads (20/90/150 KT yield variants). [Sources: FAS 2025, MDAA] │
│ │
│ **Force Structure**: As of 2020-2023, two brigades were confirmed operating │
│ DF-41 when it appeared in the 2019 parade. The CNS 2023 Order of Battle │
│ identifies Base 64 (Lanzhou HQ) Brigade 644 (Hanzhong) as a rumored DF-41 │
│ integration base. Additional brigades under Base 63 are suspected. [Sources: │
│ Bulletin PLARF Force Structure Table 2020, CNS OOB 2023] │
│ │
│ **Camouflage and Concealment**: Mobile DF-41 units employ camouflage netting │
│ and disperse into forests and tunnels during exercises, consistent with │
│ PLARF general doctrine of 'hiding and waiting.' [Sources: Al │
│ Arabiya/Facebook report] │
│ │
│ **No-First-Use and Deterrence**: Chinese doctrine officially maintains a │
│ no-first-use (NFU) posture, with the DF-41 serving as a second-strike │
│ deterrent. However, the silo expansion and LOW posture shift have raised │
│ questions among analysts about whether NFU remains operationally intact. │
│ [Sources: The Mandarin, FAS 2025] │
│ │
│ **Range and Target Coverage**: With a range of 12,00015,000 km, DF-41 │
│ brigades based in central/northern China can target the entire continental │
│ United States, making them the primary strategic countervalue and │
│ counterforce deterrent against the US. [Sources: MDAA, CSIS Missile Threat] │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
Citations
┏━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━┓
┃ # ┃ Title / Locator ┃ Excerpt ┃ Conf ┃
┡━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━┩
│ 1 │ Dong Feng-41(CSS-X-20) │ The DF-41 has a range of │ 0.90 │
│ │ https://www.missiledefenseadv │ 12,000-15,000 km (able to │ │
│ │ ocacy.org/missile-threat-and- │ target half to all of the │ │
│ │ proliferation/todays-missile- │ continental U.S.), can carry │ │
│ │ threat/china/df-41/ │ multiple independently │ │
│ │ │ targetable reentry vehicles │ │
│ │ │ (MIRVs), and is rail-or │ │
│ │ │ road-mobile. The DF-41 is │ │
│ │ │ solid propelled and can carry │ │
│ │ │ a payload of up to 2500 kg. │ │
├─────┼───────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┼───────┤
│ 2 │ DF-41 (Dong Feng-41 / │ The DF-41 (Dong Feng [East │ 0.92 │
│ │ CSS-X-20) | Missile Threat │ Wind]-41, CSS-20) is Chinese │ │
│ │ https://missilethreat.csis.or │ road-mobile intercontinental │ │
│ │ g/missile/df-41/ │ ballistic missile (ICBM). It │ │
│ │ │ has an operational range of up │ │
│ │ │ to 15,000 km, making it │ │
│ │ │ China's longest-range missile, │ │
│ │ │ and is reportedly capable of │ │
│ │ │ loading multiple │ │
│ │ │ independently-targeted │ │
│ │ │ warheads (MIRV). │ │
├─────┼───────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┼───────┤
│ 3 │ PLA Rocket Force Nuclear │ PLARF is working to implement │ 0.88 │
│ │ Warhead Management - Air │ a launch-on-warning (LOW) │ │
│ │ University │ posture, and brigades now │ │
│ │ https://www.airuniversity.af. │ strive to keep at least part │ │
│ │ edu/Portals/10/CASI/documents │ of their force in a state of │ │
│ │ /Research/Infrastructure/2026 │ │ │
│ │ -03-09%20PLARF%20Nuclear%20Wa │ │ │
│ │ rhead%20Management.pdf │ │ │
├─────┼───────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┼───────┤
│ 4 │ IMPLICATIONS OF A PRC SHIFT │ The PLARF has adjusted its │ 0.87 │
│ │ TO A LAUNCH-ON-WARNING │ nuclear warhead storage and │ │
│ │ https://inss.ndu.edu/LinkClic │ handling practices and │ │
│ │ k.aspx?fileticket=kU27dwWHUvU │ training to support regular │ │
│ │ %3D&portalid=82 │ alert status. A LOW posture, │ │
│ │ │ which requires ICBM units │ │
├─────┼───────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┼───────┤
│ 5 │ Chinese nuclear weapons, 2025 │ China has continued to develop │ 0.95 │
│ │ - Federation of American │ its three new missile silo │ │
│ │ Scientists │ fields for solid-fuel │ │
│ │ https://fas.org/wp-content/up │ intercontinental ballistic │ │
│ │ loads/2025/03/Chinese-nuclear │ missiles (ICBMs)...has been │ │
│ │ -weapons-2025.pdf │ developing new variants of │ │
│ │ │ ICBMs and advanced strategic │ │
│ │ │ delivery systems, and has │ │
│ │ │ likely produced excess │ │
│ │ │ warheads for these systems │ │
│ │ │ once they are deployed. │ │
├─────┼───────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┼───────┤
│ 6 │ New Missile Silo And DF-41 │ The photos also show that 18 │ 0.90 │
│ │ Launchers Seen In Chinese │ road-mobile launchers of the │ │
│ │ Nuclear Missile Training Area │ long-awaited DF-41 ICBM were │ │
│ │ - FAS │ training in the area in │ │
│ │ https://fas.org/publication/c │ April-May 2019 together with │ │
│ │ hina-silo-df41/ │ launchers for the DF-31AG │ │
│ │ │ ICBM, possibly the DF-5B ICBM, │ │
│ │ │ the DF-26 IRBM, and the DF-21 │ │
│ │ │ MRBM. Altogether, more than 72 │ │
│ │ │ missile launchers can be seen │ │
│ │ │ operating together. │ │
├─────┼───────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┼───────┤
│ 7 │ Table 2: PLARF Missile Force │ 644 Brigade Hanzhong (33.1321, │ 0.85 │
│ │ Structure 2020 │ 106.9361) (DF-41) (Yes) │ │
│ │ https://thebulletin.org/wp-co │ Rumored DF-41 integration │ │
│ │ ntent/uploads/2020/12/Kristen │ base. │ │
│ │ sen-Korda_Nov-Dec-China-Table │ │ │
│ │ 2_final.pdf │ │ │
├─────┼───────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┼───────┤
│ 8 │ Understanding the People's │ The DF-41 will likely replace │ 0.88 │
│ │ Liberation Army Rocket Force │ older ICBMs in the Chinese │ │
│ │ https://www.armyupress.army.m │ arsenal and will carry either │ │
│ │ il/Journals/Military-Review/E │ a single megaton warhead or up │ │
│ │ nglish-Edition-Archives/China │ to ten MIRV smaller warheads. │ │
│ │ -Reader-Special-Edition-Septe │ │ │
│ │ mber-2021/Mihal-PLA-Rocket-Fo │ │ │
│ │ rce/ │ │ │
├─────┼───────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┼───────┤
│ 9 │ China's new missile silos │ The discovery by researchers │ 0.82 │
│ │ (hundreds of them) │ at the James Martin Center for │ │
│ │ https://www.themandarin.com.a │ Nonproliferation Studies in │ │
│ │ u/166656-china-military-watch │ California that 119 missile │ │
│ │ -2/ │ silos were being built in the │ │
│ │ │ desert near the city of Yumen │ │
│ │ │ in the Gansu region suggested │ │
│ │ │ a rapid expansion of China's │ │
│ │ │ nuclear weapons capabilities. │ │
├─────┼───────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┼───────┤
│ 10 │ China is building more │ The new underground silos are │ 0.84 │
│ │ underground silos for its │ located in the centre of the │ │
│ │ ballistic missiles | SCMP │ Jilantai training base, within │ │
│ │ https://www.scmp.com/news/chi │ a total area of 200 sq km, and │ │
│ │ na/military/article/3125699/c │ are spaced between 2.2km and │ │
│ │ hina-building-more-undergroun │ 4.4km apart so that no two of │ │
│ │ d-silos-its-ballistic-missile │ them can be destroyed in a │ │
│ │ s │ single nuclear attack. │ │
├─────┼───────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┼───────┤
│ 11 │ China's Mobile ICBM Brigades: │ The PLARF is currently │ 0.75 │
│ │ The DF-31 and DF-41 │ modernizing its │ │
│ │ https://www.aboyandhis.blog/p │ intercontinental ballistic │ │
│ │ ost/china-s-mobile-icbm-briga │ missile forces with two new │ │
│ │ des-the-df-31-and-df-41 │ mobile systems: the new DF-41 │ │
│ │ │ ballistic missile and the new │ │
│ │ │ DF-31AG │ │
│ │ │ transporter-erector-launcher.. │ │
│ │ │ .The DF-41 is thought to be │ │
│ │ │ out of development but has not │ │
│ │ │ yet moved into Operational │ │
│ │ │ Testing and Evaluation (OT&E). │ │
├─────┼───────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┼───────┤
│ 12 │ The 2024 DOD China Military │ Other variables are how many │ 0.90 │
│ │ Power Report - FAS │ warheads are assigned to the │ │
│ │ https://fas.org/publication/t │ DF-26 IRBM launchers (probably │ │
│ │ he-2024-dod-china-military-po │ not all of them), how many of │ │
│ │ wer-report/ │ the six SSBNs have been │ │
│ │ │ upgraded to the JL-3 SLBM and │ │
│ │ │ whether it is assigned │ │
│ │ │ multiple warheads, and how │ │
│ │ │ many DF-41 ICBM launchers are │ │
│ │ │ operational and how many │ │
│ │ │ warheads each missile is │ │
│ │ │ assigned. │ │
└─────┴───────────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────────┴───────┘
Gaps
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ Category ┃ Topic ┃ Detail ┃
┡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┩
│ source_not_found │ Exact number of │ Open sources confirm at │
│ │ operational DF-41 │ least two brigades as of │
│ │ brigades and launchers │ 2019 parade, with │
│ │ as of 2025 │ additional brigades │
│ │ │ suspected, but no │
│ │ │ authoritative public │
│ │ │ count of currently │
│ │ │ operational DF-41 │
│ │ │ launchers exists as of │
│ │ │ 2025. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│ scope_exceeded │ Specific warhead mating │ Detailed operational │
│ │ protocols and │ warhead handling │
│ │ pre-delegation authority │ procedures, command │
│ │ for DF-41 brigades │ authority thresholds, and │
│ │ │ pre-delegation rules for │
│ │ │ DF-41 brigades are │
│ │ │ classified and not │
│ │ │ available in open │
│ │ │ sources. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│ contradictory_sources │ Confirmed rail-mobile │ Multiple sources indicate │
│ │ DF-41 operational │ rail-mobile DF-41 was │
│ │ deployment │ tested and considered, │
│ │ │ but no sources confirm it │
│ │ │ has been operationally │
│ │ │ deployed in that basing │
│ │ │ mode as of 2025. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│ access_denied │ Full CNS 2023 Order of │ The PDF was identified │
│ │ Battle PDF content on │ but binary content could │
│ │ DF-41 brigades │ not be fully parsed to │
│ │ │ extract specific DF-41 │
│ │ │ brigade details from the │
│ │ │ 2023 CNS Order of Battle. │
└───────────────────────┴──────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────┘
Discovery Events
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ ┃ Suggested ┃ ┃ ┃
┃ Type ┃ Researcher ┃ Query ┃ Reason ┃
┡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┩
│ new_source │ database │ PLARF DF-41 │ The 2023 CNS │
│ │ │ brigade order of │ Order of Battle │
│ │ │ battle 2024 2025 │ is the most │
│ │ │ silo field │ recent structured │
│ │ │ deployment │ OOB but may be │
│ │ │ │ outdated given │
│ │ │ │ rapid 2024-2025 │
│ │ │ │ expansion. │
├──────────────────┼───────────────────┼───────────────────┼───────────────────┤
│ related_research │ database │ China DF-41 │ The LOW posture │
│ │ │ launch on warning │ shift is │
│ │ │ posture warhead │ documented but │
│ │ │ mating 2024 2025 │ the degree to │
│ │ │ │ which DF-41 │
│ │ │ │ brigades │
│ │ │ │ specifically have │
│ │ │ │ implemented it │
│ │ │ │ versus older │
│ │ │ │ systems is │
│ │ │ │ unclear. │
├──────────────────┼───────────────────┼───────────────────┼───────────────────┤
│ related_research │ arxiv │ China nuclear no │ The silo │
│ │ │ first use │ expansion and LOW │
│ │ │ doctrine DF-41 │ posture raise │
│ │ │ silo expansion │ academic │
│ │ │ strategic │ questions about │
│ │ │ stability │ NFU credibility │
│ │ │ │ that may be │
│ │ │ │ addressed in │
│ │ │ │ recent strategic │
│ │ │ │ studies │
│ │ │ │ literature. │
├──────────────────┼───────────────────┼───────────────────┼───────────────────┤
│ contradiction │ null │ DF-41 rail-mobile │ MDAA lists │
│ │ │ deployment status │ rail-mobile as an │
│ │ │ operational vs │ operational │
│ │ │ testing │ basing mode, │
│ │ │ │ while FAS and │
│ │ │ │ CSIS sources │
│ │ │ │ suggest it │
│ │ │ │ remains in │
│ │ │ │ testing/considera │
│ │ │ │ tion phase. This │
│ │ │ │ contradiction │
│ │ │ │ should be │
│ │ │ │ investigated. │
└──────────────────┴───────────────────┴───────────────────┴───────────────────┘
Open Questions
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┃ Priority ┃ Question ┃ Context ┃
┡━━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┩
│ high │ Has China fully transitioned to │ Air University and NDU sources │
│ │ a launch-on-warning posture for │ confirm PLARF is 'working to │
│ │ DF-41 brigades, or is this │ implement' LOW, but the degree │
│ │ still aspirational? │ of actual implementation vs. │
│ │ │ doctrinal aspiration is │
│ │ │ ambiguous. │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ high │ How many DF-41 silos in the │ Reuters December 2025 report │
│ │ three new silo fields │ indicates 100+ solid-fuel ICBMs │
│ │ (Yumen/Gansu, Hami/Xinjiang, │ loaded in silo fields; FAS 2025 │
│ │ Ordos/Inner Mongolia) are now │ notes continued silo │
│ │ loaded with missiles as of │ development. The DF-41 vs DF-31 │
│ │ 2025? │ breakdown in these silos is │
│ │ │ unclear. │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ high │ What is the command-and-control │ LOW posture implies faster │
│ │ structure for DF-41 brigades — │ decision timelines, raising │
│ │ do brigade commanders have any │ questions about whether China │
│ │ pre-delegated launch authority? │ has moved toward any degree of │
│ │ │ pre-delegation, which would be │
│ │ │ a major doctrinal shift. │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ medium │ Has the DF-41 rail-mobile │ Rail-mobile tests were reported │
│ │ variant been operationally │ in December 2015, and the 2019 │
│ │ deployed with any PLARF │ Pentagon report noted China │
│ │ brigade? │ 'appears to be considering' │
│ │ │ rail-mobile basing, but no │
│ │ │ confirmed operational │
│ │ │ deployment has been identified. │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ medium │ What is the specific MIRV │ FAS 2025 notes uncertainty │
│ │ loading assignment doctrine for │ about how many warheads each │
│ │ operational DF-41 missiles — │ DF-41 is assigned in practice, │
│ │ are they typically deployed │ which significantly affects │
│ │ with maximum warhead loads or │ strategic stability │
│ │ reduced loads? │ calculations. │
└──────────┴─────────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────┘
╭───────────────────────────────── Confidence ─────────────────────────────────╮
│ Overall: 0.72 │
│ Corroborating sources: 12 │
│ Source authority: high │
│ Contradiction detected: True │
│ Query specificity match: 0.75 │
│ Budget status: spent │
│ Recency: current │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
╭──────────────────────────────────── Cost ────────────────────────────────────╮
│ Tokens: 62857 │
│ Iterations: 3 │
│ Wall time: 132.16s │
│ Model: claude-sonnet-4-6 │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
trace_id: b3d00938-5309-4faa-a20d-97a8511bb8f9