Home Americas

China’s ‘Chilling Plan’ Unmasked As PLA Holds Drills To Bomb US Military Base In Guam & Taiwan

China has been refining its ship-killing skills from striking large, carrier-sized targets to smaller ships and naval bases, according to recent satellite images reviewed by US Naval Institute (USNI).

‘Made In Russia, Recycled In Ukraine’ — Putin’s Best Fighter Bombers Are Being Sold As Souvenirs In Ukraine

According to a Taipei-based analyst, the images show a training base with the layout of a mock-up ship moored in a navel base resembling one in northeast Taiwan and other targets in Guam.

In November 2021, EurAsian Times had reported about a target range in Xinjiang’s remote Taklamakan desert with targets built in the shape of an American aircraft carrier and at least two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.

The new satellite images reviewed by the USNI show that China is building a string of large-scale target ranges along the eastern rim of the desert.

One of the new targets discovered is a mock-up of a destroyer and pier constructed in December, just eight miles (13 km) southeast of the elaborate aircraft carrier target revealed in November.

British Navy, US-Flagged Commercial Tanker Demonstrate Interoperability To Refuel Military Vessels In High Seas

That target was destroyed in February by a test missile that “hit a dead center on the ship’s replica,” and then it was “quickly disassembled and is now gone,” reported H. I. Sutton, the writer of the USNI article.




The mock-up of a destroyer and pier destroyed in February (Illustration using Maxar’s Satellite Image by H. I. Sutton, USNI News)

Signs Of Sophisticated Targeting Drills 

Another independent analyst Damien Symons had reported that there was another similar naval base target found about 190 miles (310 km) southwest of the original aircraft carrier layout. This target was constructed in December 2018 but remained unnoticed until recently.

The pier layout of the target resembles the destroyer-like site that was destroyed in February, and it also includes ship targets, with one in the same position as the latest target.

Symons pointed out that the layout of the target is very calculated, a sign of sophisticated targeting.

“The orientations, shapes, and sizes are consistent across multiple targets. There is nothing haphazard about these sites,” said Symons.

The targets appear to be shaped by laying metal sheets on the ground. “This is a different material to the piers and buildings. It may reflect heat or radar differently. This might also indicate the complex systems and effort behind these experiments,” Symons adds.

According to Sutton, the nature, location, and strikes on these mock-up layouts suggest the targets are meant for testing hypersonic anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBMs).

China is known to have been developing several ASBMs. Two of them, the DF-21D and DF-26, are land-based. The former is known as the “carrier-killer,” while the latter was dubbed “Guam Express” because of its range of up to 3,000 miles (5,000km) which is enough to reach Guam, the US overseas territory which is home to a major military base.




China’s DF-26 Missile. dubbed ‘Guam Express’ (Forbes)

Target Layouts Resemble a Taiwanese Naval Base

Lu Li-Shih, a former instructor at Taiwan’s Naval Academy in Kaohsiung, compared the layout of the target sites to US military bases in Japan and the Philippines but found that the naval base layout resembled the Suao Naval Base in Yilan county in northeast Taiwan.

“I tried to compare [the layout] of US naval bases in Yokosuka and Sesabo [in Japan] and Subic Bay [in the Philippines], but Suao naval port is the most similar,” Lu said, adding the target ship in the site is supposed to be the Kidd-class destroyer in the Taiwanese naval base.

Read More

Exit mobile version