New satellite images reveal a China missile testing site in a remote desert with mock naval targets arranged to resemble ships in port.
Previously identified sites in China have demonstrated the country’s military capacity to strike large, even carrier-sized, targets. However, recent images suggest the Chinese military is refining its ability to attack smaller ships with long-range missiles.
Some targets are “modeled on ships in port,” according to an analyst at the U.S. Naval Institute (USNI), a non-profit unaffiliated with the U.S. government. “The nature, location, and strikes on these sites all suggest the targets are meant for testing [hypersonic anti-ship] ballistic missiles (ASBMs).”
The South China Morning Post reported that these mock targets resemble a naval base in northeast Taiwan and another in Guam.
China considers Taiwan a renegade province and has vowed to reintegrate it into its body politic by force if necessary.
On Tuesday, May 10, at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines testified that “[China is] working hard to effectively put themselves into a position in which their military is capable of taking Taiwan over our intervention.”
When U.S. Senator Josh Hawley asked if the threat of a China invasion of Taiwan was “acute between now and 2030,” the director replied, “It’s fair to say that it is critical, or acute, between now and 2030. I think that that’s absolutely fair.”
The discovery of these new missile test sites and their mock targets suggest to USNI analyst H. I. Sutton that China is developing more precise weapon systems that can be deployed against ports.
Sutton writes, “[China’s] ASBMs, if they are able to discern a ship from a pier, could inflict a killer opening blow against an enemy navy. The fear is fleets could be decapitated before they can escape to open water or disperse.”
The newly discovered missile test site is in the Takmalakan Desert, around 190 miles away from where mock-ups of an American destroyer and aircraft carrier were found by satellite in 2021.