According to new satellite photographs published this week, the government of communist China appears to have built a second model of a US aircraft carrier in a distant Chinese desert.
This is not the first time
The story follows the discovery of a full-scale silhouette of a US ship and at least two Arleigh Burke-class warships at a target range a few days earlier.
According to the US Naval Academy (USNI), photographs supplied to USNI Media by satellite photography company Maxar revealed the location contains a single aircraft carrier target just kilometers away from the closest village in the Xinjiang area.
USNI News originally reported on Sunday the ship target was around 300 miles away from a bigger alleged missile range in the Taklamakan Desert. The locations are similar in appearance.
They are also aligned on a chart with the carriers pointing the very same direction, as if they were in a convoy. This second target, like the original, is the same size as a US Navy aircraft carrier.
Is China conducting exercises with much greater fidelity, scope and technological sophistication? Are Chinese wargames and war preparation methods increasingly “borrowing” from or copying U.S. approaches?
— लोकतंत्र~~~ (Democracy)🇮🇳 🌍 (@abhishekchita) November 7, 2021
The secondary aircraft carrier’s form does not seem to be a full-scale replica, despite the fact it is approximately 600 feet long. The new aircraft carrier mockup looks to have begun assembly this summer.
The report dropped more bombshells
The figures on the exhibits are clearly supposed to be representing enemy forces in Chinese training. Opposing forces are classified “blue” inside the Chinese military, while its own are branded “red,” the absolute opposite of the US and NATO.
Putting the objectives in the heartland enables China to command the airspace around the site by allowing the full missile mission to occur over their own country.
Because the tests are conducted away from the ocean, any wreckage that falls to the ocean floor cannot be collected by other forces. Both of these issues will make gathering intelligence on the weaponry tests challenging.
Defence forces are monitoring a Chinese surveillance vessel that looks set to arrive off the coast of the northern Australian state of #Queensland as wargames involving US and Australian defence forces begin. https://t.co/vpj77VNHM6
— The Epoch Times – China Insider (@EpochTimesChina) July 14, 2021
Several of the subsequent news pieces on Chinese military hardware which can be employed to attack US warships were included in the latest Department of Defense assessment on China’s military assets.
The conventional equipped CSS-5 Mod 5 (DF-21D) ASBM version of the People’s Liberation Missile Force (PLARF) allows the PLA to undertake long-range precise strikes on warships, especially aircraft carriers, out to the Pacific via mainland China.
The DF-21D has a reach of over 1,500 kilometers, is equipped with a maneuverable rocket system (MaRV), and can allegedly reload quickly in the field.
When questioned about the situation on Monday, Defense Department spokesperson John Kirby stated the US is worried about what China is doing because “it’s been fairly, pretty apparent.”
“I believe it’s pretty obvious what our knowledge of their goals and capacities is,” Kirby explained. “They definitely invested heavily, particularly in sea and air assets, to attempt to prevent the United States from getting access to specific places in the Indo-Pacific,” he says.
