[Epoch Times November 13, 2021 News]In today’s society, the role of weapons and the army is given a deeper meaning than killing. Strong military power is often used as a deterrent to maintain world peace and human security. Although the war became hidden, it never stopped. 【Current Affairs and Military】Take you to the forefront to see the details and truth of the battle between good and evil.
Since October this year, reconnaissance satellites have discovered physical scale models that simulate US aircraft carriers, destroyers, fighter jets, and early warning aircraft in western China, showing that the CCP is rapidly launching an attack test targeting the US military.
According to satellite imagery provided by Maxar to the United States Naval Research Institute (USNI) in October this year, the Chinese military has built a U.S. aircraft carrier and at least two Ali. A full-scale model of the Burke-class destroyer. This is part of a shooting range built in the Ruoqiang area of Xinjiang, China. It is close to the shooting range used to test the so-called carrier killer DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile.
The model of the aircraft carrier in the image seems to be a plane, without islands and other details, but the silhouette of the aircraft carrier is clearly visible in contrast to the surrounding desert. Except for the aircraft carrier, the US destroyer model seems to be more detailed, and some of it may be used to install instruments or simulate the structure of the ship’s superstructure. These simulation facilities are installed on a track system, and the image shows a 75-meter-long target placed on a 6-meter-wide track.
Satellite imaging company photos on November 7 found a second simulated target that resembled the shape of a US aircraft carrier. The target is about 300 miles from a larger suspected missile launch site in the Taklimakan Desert. Presumably, it was built last month and looks to have just been completed. The difference from the first one is that this target is not full-size. It is about half the size of the American Nimitz-class aircraft carrier and is about 173 meters (568 feet) long. It does not seem to have an orbital mechanism, but has a larger radar reflector.
According to the analysis of Maxar images by Geospatial Intelligence Corporation (AllSource Analysis), these models are targets for ballistic missile tests. These models of American warships, which are movable on orbits or fixed on the ground, can simulate the target characteristics required for missile attacks. Since no traces of the model being attacked by weapons were found, coupled with a large number of details of the simulant, including the presence of sensors and some architectural structures, it is judged that this area may be reused for a period of time in the future.
Testing new anti-ship weapons has become a priority for the CCP. At the Zhuhai Air Show held from September 28 to October 3 this year, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) demonstrated the orbital scaled target model seen in the Taklimakan Desert, which they called the Land-based Integrated Electronic Blue Army system.
The scope of weapons to be tested by these facilities is still unclear, but we can see the CCP’s significant progress in missile testing. These investments to enhance deterrence capabilities are specifically aimed at the US Navy, especially the US aircraft carrier fleet. It also confirmed the Pentagon’s statement that the CCP’s anti-ship ballistic missile program is expanding. According to the Pentagon’s report “China’s Military and Security Development” in early November, one of the main goals of the Chinese Navy is to put US aircraft carriers at risk of anti-ship ballistic missiles throughout the Western Pacific.
The CCP has a number of anti-ship ballistic missile projects supervised by the Rocket Force, including the DF-21D with a range of more than 800 nautical miles and the DF-26 with a range of about 2,000 nautical miles. These are the aircraft carrier killers promoted by the CCP. In July 2019, the Chinese Navy carried out the first live launch of anti-ship ballistic missiles and launched 6 DF-21D missiles into the waters north of the Nansha Islands. DF-26 can carry conventional warheads or nuclear warheads, and its range can cover the US military base on the second island chain in the Pacific. In addition to land-based anti-ship ballistic missiles, the CCP also has air-to-ship and ship-to-ship missiles. These weapons constitute a threat to the US fleet in the Western Pacific.
According to a report by the South China Morning Post, recent satellite images show that there are at least four models of suspected F-35 “Lightning II” fighters at the shooting range of the CCP Rocket Force in Korla, Xinjiang. These models may be targets for DF-16 and DF-21C medium-range ballistic missiles. The DF-16 has a range of approximately 1,000 kilometers (621 miles), and the DF-21C has a range of approximately 2,000 kilometers. The CCP’s deployment of these two missiles in the Northeast directly threatens US military bases in South Korea and Japan.
The simulation training of the ground F-35 and the deployment of the DF-21C can be understood as the F-35B deployed by the U.S. Marine Corps at Iwakuni Air Base, Japan, and the F-35A deployed by the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force at Misawa Air Base. And the direct threat of the F-35A deployed by the United States in Gunsan and Osan bases in South Korea.
The target characteristics established by the CCP’s Rocket Force clearly point to the US military’s military presence in the Western Pacific, but whether it can achieve its combat intentions in actual combat is completely different.
Although anti-ship missiles are described as having powerful speed and range, there is no actual combat example yet, and the reliability of their use of infrared or radar guidance to strike moving targets at the end of the attack is widely disputed.
American aircraft carriers and destroyers usually sail at a speed of 30 knots. Once they detect a missile attack, they will change their course to evade the missile’s search and leave the missile’s killing zone. This requires that the missile’s guidance system must scan a large enough range and be able to filter interference, identify and track targets. In this process, it is also necessary to continuously receive target data from other information nodes such as submarines, unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, maritime patrol aircraft, early warning aircraft or satellites. For the CCP, this is a long and fragile kill chain, and any problem in any link will result in the loss of the target.
Accurately striking a moving target is a necessary condition for the CCP’s anti-ship ballistic missile to be effective, but its sufficient condition does not hold. The CCP first needs to use its series of satellites, sensors, and other surveillance equipment to truly and accurately find and track the navigating US fleet in the vast Pacific Ocean. This is doubtful. Second, the US military’s electronic warfare and other defensive methods can destroy the guidance information of incoming missiles. Third, the CCP’s ballistic missiles themselves have high visibility to radar and infrared sensors. The US Navy has been responding to this threat for many years, and the methods have been maturing, such as the SM-3 and SM-6 missile defense systems.
The CCP lacks decent maritime surveillance capabilities and may not be able to reliably detect, track, and transmit target data required for missile attacks. Because in the process of missile attack, it is necessary to maintain communication with the navy, air force, and space surveillance platforms to determine the launch timing of the missile and lock the target. In actual combat, the CCP’s reconnaissance and communication facilities must be the first targets the US military destroyed. The US military has enough electronic warfare methods and kinetic energy weapons to destroy or destroy these information systems.
The CCP shares a fixed or linearly moving full-size target to test and practice the attack ability against moving targets, trying to establish a complete kill chain, which seems to reflect the CCP’s attack ability is still in the development stage. The CCP does not even have a US aircraft carrier model that can move in a curve on the sea like Iran. Iran depicts the flight deck of the Nimitz-class (CVN-68) aircraft carrier on this aircraft carrier model. A spokesperson for the U.S. Fifth Fleet stated that the Iranian exercises will not change U.S. military operations in the region, and its impact on U.S. Navy operations in the Gulf is zero.
For enemies with a variety of advanced air defense capabilities and active actions, the CCP wants to defeat its opponents through long-range strikes, requiring extremely complex technical conditions and tactical capabilities. The original shooting range facilities indicate that the CCP still has a considerable distance.
Of course, based on the current progress of the CCP, it is possible to use the so-called saturation attack method, which is to use enough missiles to attack an aircraft carrier in a concentrated manner to overwhelm the air defense capability of the aircraft carrier battle group. It can only be said that this approach may increase the probability of hitting, but it may not be really effective. Even if it is effective, how many ballistic missiles can be used to attack an aircraft carrier? What should I do after destroying an aircraft carrier? What else do you use to fight against your opponent?
The CCP’s current capabilities relative to the U.S. forces may not be as good as Japan’s capabilities relative to the U.S. forces during the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Back then, the Japanese fleet had to cross over 6,000 kilometers of stormy seas to go to war with the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet in Hawaii. This is something that the Chinese Navy cannot possibly do today. Back then, the Japanese Navy even succeeded in the initial operations, but the result it brought to Japan was the defeat of the entire country.
Currently, the USS Washington is docked at the Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan, which is very close to the Chinese Communist Party. The US Seventh Fleet’s naval status in the Western Pacific today forms a roughly corresponding strategic relationship with the Pacific Fleet’s status in Pearl Harbor during World War II. If the CCP is willing, it may have a chance to sink an American aircraft carrier anchored in Yokosuka, Japan. Luo Yuan, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences, believes that the sinking of two US aircraft carriers and the death of tens of thousands of sailors will force the United States to make a political decision to withdraw from the battlefield because it cannot withstand the casualties caused by the battle. To verify this view, one only needs to look at the outcome of Japan’s sinking of the US Navy’s battleships and aircraft carriers.
Written by: Xia Luoshan (Reporter of “Epoch Times“, has experienced more than ten years of military life, mainly engaged in military teaching and some technical management work)
Production: Current Affairs Military Production Team
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Editor in charge: Lian Shuhua
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