China has been practicing its ship-targeting skills on new targets in a faraway desert, USNI News reported on Wednesday, citing new satellite imagery from the purported area.
According to the report, the People's Liberation Army is practicing using long-range ballistic missiles to attack ships in port. Other target sites have emerged after China allegedly built aircraft carrier targets in the Taklamakan Desert, according to fresh satellite photographs, presented in the outlet's report.The image captured a line of large-scale target ranges spanning along the eastern edge of the desert.
Several of them are purportedly naval, and two of them have layouts that resemble ships in port.
In December, a site with full-scale piers and a destroyer-sized ship-like target were reportedly built almost 13 kilometers southwest of an extensive aircraft carrier layout. Then, per USNI News, a test missile hit the ship replica dead center in February, and the target was rapidly deconstructed and is gone as of May.
This new target was discovered as part of All Source Analysis think tank's investigation into aircraft carrier targets, with extra information disclosed by Maxar Technologies' high-resolution satellite photography.
Moreover, yet another similar naval base target was reportedly discovered some 300 kilometers southwest. The site was supposedly constructed in December 2018 but went unnoticed by defense experts.
The pier is reportedly laid up similarly to the destroyer-like location, and it features ship targets, one of which is next to the most recent target. The type, location, and hits on these facilities all point to the targets being used for missile testing, per the outlet.
Metal sheets appear to have been used to shape targets in the desert, allegedly, to imitate ship plating.
Modern Anti-Ship Ballistic Missiles
Small circles of error probability (CEP), a measure of the distance from the aiming point where there is still a 50% chance of hitting, are found on modern "dumb" ballistic missiles, experts noted. However, if the target is a crowded port dock, the majority of the CEP is still water, and near-misses into the harbor are unlikely to have the desired effect.
Infrared, optical, or radar may be used by Chinese missiles to build up a picture of the target. They could then fine-tune their trajectory to land precisely on the target. Still, it is impossible to say if the missiles use infrared or radar based on open-source data, although both are possible, the author argued.
Modern targeting sensors are often linked to artificial intelligence, allowing the missile to distinguish targets and select the best alternative. If ASBMs can distinguish a ship from a dock, they can deliver a devastating first strike against an enemy navy, so fleets could be decapitated before they can escape to open sea or scatter.