The Chinese military is using mock-ups of a U.S. aircraft carrier at a weapons-testing range in a remote western desert, new satellite imagery shows, indicating the People’s Liberation Army is focused on neutralizing a key tool of U.S. power.
Satellite images depict targets in the shape of a carrier and two Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers at a testing facility in the Taklamakan desert in Xinjiang, the news website of the U.S. Naval Institute reported. Both types of vessels are deployed by the U.S. 7th Fleet, which patrols the Western Pacific including the waters around Taiwan.
The images were taken in October by Maxar Technologies Inc., a U.S. firm with more than 80 company-built satellites in orbit. The facility also has two rectangular targets about 75 meters (246 feet) long that are mounted on rails, Maxar said in a statement emailed to Bloomberg News on Monday.