South China Morning Post has confirmed
the presence of the mach F-35 fighter
jets at the Corliss shooting range in Xinjiang. Chinese military analysts have
reportedly called this Beijing's
deterrence bid against the u.s and japan
in the backdrop of the taiwan issue. The latest edition of the Kanwa military
magazine said four mock-ups of the F-35 Lightning II Jet were spotted at the
said shooting range.
The report cited satellite imagery to
authenticate its claim. Satellite imagery
also suggests the use of a mock-up of an Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft at the same site.
Planet labs an american private earth
imaging company released images of
boeing E-3 Century mockups being used by
china to test its ballistic missile. the mock-ups of F-35 jets could possibly
be the targets for the PLA rocket forces DF-16 and DF-21C medium-range ballistic
missiles and therefore a message to the
u.s air force base in Japan, said Andre Chong the editor of the Kanwa Magazine.
Chinese military experts have often
expressed the possibility of japan
getting dragged into a U.S-China
conflict over taiwan which beijing
claims as its territory. The D-16A modern Dongfeng Class Missile
with a range of about 800 to 1,000
kilometers can strike both Taiwan and Japan. The DF-21C on the other hand is a lethal
terminally guided missile with a range
of 1,700 kilometers putting multiple
american bases in japan at risk.
The F-35 Lightning II Jets are one of
the most lethal aircraft in the world
and one that china has been trying to
compete with by building its own stealth
fighter aircraft. The F-35 boasts all-weather stealth
multi-role capabilities that allow it to
perform both air superiority and strike
missions. It also has in its armor the ability to
perform electronic warfare and
surveillance.
The U.S Military recently conducted
tests of delivery of nuclear gravity
bombs using the 5th generation F-35. The satellite imagery shows mockups of
2 E-3 Century AWACS aircraft sitting on PLA's most potent weapon testing
complexes in northern china's gobi
desert. After the E-3 images surfaced, the war
zone investigated the duration for which
these mock-ups were present in the
testing complex. This led to the discovery of a report
released by the center for a new america
security that was published in february
this year.
The report confirmed the presence of one E-3 Century back then. Based on this report an osit-based
evidence it could be estimated that one
of the e3 mock-ups has been on the gobi
runway for about a year, while the second
one has been introduced this year. The E- is an AWACS system built to carry
out airborne surveillance and control, command and communication functions. It has a look down radar with 360 degree
coverage capability and has a range of
more than 320 kilometers.
The aircraft is primarily used to track
land and sea based targets, with more aggressive american arrays in
the indo-pacific region and its Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) position these
air warning systems become especially
significant to the chinese military. The aircraft is deployed by the U.S as E-3 AWCS by the UK as E-3 Century and by France as E-3 SDA.
With rising animosity between the u.s
led NATO and China such mock-up target
drills assume enhanced geostrategic
significance. It could be interpreted as china sending
a signal to its western.
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