Maritime Monster All Jobs Moored Here
China’s military is building increasingly detailed and sophisticated models of U.S. Navy warships at its target range out in Xinjiang, according to open-source intelligence analyst Damien Symon and UK paper The Telegraph. China is not just building replicas of US warships; satellite images reveal it is also constructing highly detailed models of American fighter jets, crucial naval bases, and Taiwanese government buildings. Beijing uses these precise mock-ups to test long-range precision weaponry…
China has been building out military testing and bombing ranges in its remote western deserts since at least the 2000s, and has added more and more realism to its mockups as time has gone by. Back in 2021, satellite imaging company Maxar Technologies released high-resolution photos of a Chinese test range that appeared carefully tailored for practicing attacks on U.S. Navy warships. The Taklamakan Desert site’s most notable feature was an extra-wide-gauge rail line to nowhere. Supported on the rails was a mockup of a ship on wheels, ready to “maneuver” over the landscape to provide a realistic, moving, ship-like target. Nearby, two-dimensional mockups of familiar American warships – an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and a Ford-class carrier – were laid out on the moonscape of the desert sand.
At the time, analysts suggested that the purpose of the site was likely for ballistic-missile target practice. China possesses multiple anti-ship ballistic missiles, including the DF-21D, DF-26, and the hypersonic maneuvering YJ-21. Ship-shaped targets would be ideal for live-fire testing of these munitions.
FULL ARTICLE AVAILABLE HERE: maritime-executive.com
