In China, an aircraft carrier in the desert – archyde

An American aircraft carrier of 100,000 tons in the middle of the Chinese desert, that calls out. It is certainly only a model, blue, placed on rails. This is enough for these European satellite images, processed by Maxar Technologies and published Sunday, November 7, to be highly commented on by observers of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). According to HI Sutton, specialist in the military naval field who deciphered the information on USNI News, the facilities identified are ” a novelty “ who falls “Of a much more sophisticated range” than the previous ones.

In the region of Xinjiang, in northwest China, on the flat lands of Taklamakan, a military site organized around mobile target boats appears, dedicated to anti-ship missile tests. Besides the model of a Ford-class aircraft carrier, one can see those of two Arleigh Burke type destroyers.

“Moving target”

It remains to be seen whether these installations really make it possible to test the delicate phases of a missile’s flight – precision in hitting a boat which sails at 30 km / h, guidance and ultimate alignment towards the target, impact of the strike on the enemy ship. Training on realistic targets is in any case a shared military practice. If the French no longer have the right to sink wrecks, the Americans still shoot objects at sea. The Revolutionary Guards in Iran, too, would have trained in 2015 to hit an American aircraft carrier – a scale model was seen in 2020, half capsized, in the port of Bandar Abbas.

After the first live firing of DF-21D missiles known as “aircraft carrier killers” in July 2019, China “In 2020 fired ballistic missiles against a moving target in the South China Sea, without acknowledging the facts”, says the US Department of Defense, in its 2021 report on the PLA. For the latter, anti-ship weapons are a priority. They will be crucial in the event of a military crisis in Taiwan, to keep the United States fleet at bay.