China built American aircraft carriers in the desert, mock-ups of warships

Satellite imagery from a remote desert in China’s western Xinjiang region, which the PLA uses for exercises, shows outlines in the shape of a Nimitz-class carrier and at least two Earle Burke-class destroyers, two Colorado-based firms As per the details provided by . The findings suggest that the carrier shaped structure appears to have been built to enable its movement on railway tracks.

Evidence of the ship mock-up – possibly designed for target practice – comes amid concerns over Taiwan, the self-governing island Beijing claims is its sovereign territory and supplies the US with military hardware. The PLA is increasingly active in the skies and seas around Taiwan, while the US and Western allies are increasing naval patrols in an apparent attempt to prevent Beijing from taking action to gain control of the island.

Photographs of ship-like structures by Maxar Technologies Inc. and interpreted by Allsource Analysis Inc., their dimensions matching the hull shape of American naval ships, but with minimal or no deck equipment or other characteristics of the actual ship.

The ships have about eight counterfeit and unidentified equipment that appear to be sensors spread over a vast area that China has used for training in the past, said Renee Babiarz, an analyst at Allsource Analysis, which first discovered the site. .

“Part of China’s testing for weapons systems is now involving detailed examples of US equipment and US equipment in the Pacific Theater,” Mr Babiarz said.

A spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, Wang Wenbin, told a briefing in Beijing on Monday that he was not aware of the situation when asked about satellite images.

Photos of ship-like structures are the latest example of how satellite imagery can provide clues to the priorities of China’s secret military. Earlier imagery from space has demonstrated runway construction and other signs of military-base building on islands in the South China Sea, while other such photography includes road construction along China’s disputed borders with Bhutan and India. And new structures are shown. This year, satellites have also detected signs of missile silo construction around China as Beijing expands its nuclear arsenal.

Satellite photography has also played a key role in opening the world’s eyes to the scale of the camps in Xinjiang that human rights groups say have housed Muslim minorities and which Beijing calls training facilities.

Navies around the world create realistic-looking targets for exercises; For example Iran has used a copy of a US aircraft carrier. For nearly two decades, China has been known to use ship mock-ups in its remote deserts for target practice, and in 2013 a Taiwanese media report called the “carrier killer,” the DF-21D, on a structure. Reported attacks by missiles. Designed to look like the body of an American aircraft carrier.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby declined to address the boat mock-up, saying he had not seen the images.

Mr Kirby pointed to an annual Pentagon report on China’s military might, released last week, as an indicator of the Defense Department’s concerns about Chinese capabilities. The report shows an overall increase in the size and power of China’s armed forces.

It also points to significant efforts by the PLA to make its training of the armed forces more realistic, including by advancing live-fire target missile exercises.

“I think it makes it very clear what their intentions are and our understanding of their capabilities and how they are developing those abilities and what ends up being there,” Mr. Kirby said.