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Important Takeaways:
- China Scans ‘World’s Largest Naval Base’ In USA; US Navy’s Norfolk Naval Station ‘Unmasked’ By Spy Satellite
- In a display of its growing space prowess and surveillance capabilities, radar images of a US Navy base taken by a Chinese satellite are circulating online. Appearing first on China’s domestic social media platform Weibo, defense analysts later identified the spacecraft as the Taijing-4 03 “flat-plate radar imaging satellite” and identified the naval facility as the Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia.
- The radar image showed three aircraft carriers, what appeared to be two Arleigh Burke-class warships. Four other vessels in the image, however, cannot be identified.
- The Norfolk base, on the east coast of the US, is one of the premier naval bases responsible for projecting power and operations in the Atlantic Ocean and is home to the Military Sealift Command and the submarines of the Atlantic Fleet. It is also the world’s largest shore-based naval establishment, supporting 75 ships and 134 aircraft alongside 14 piers and 11 aircraft hangars.
- According to one report, the Taijing-4 03, the first Chinese commercial satellite of phased-array radar imaging in the Ku band, is a part of the Taijing series of satellites. These play a crucial role in China’s “remote sensing capabilities,” offering various applications such as “disaster and environmental surveillance, natural resource exploration, agricultural yield estimation, and land and maritime mapping.”
- In January this year, satellite images showed that China had built a replica of the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford for use as a target. The mock-ups reflect the trend of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) focus on counter-US aircraft carriers and other capital ships. The targets are more representative of reality and help obtain more accurate data during tests.
- At a broader level, the satellite is also part of the private space race between the US and China, apart from the general intensifying space exploration contest and the overall military, technological, and political competition.
- Beijing, too, has seen several private space technology companies mushroom over the last few years, rivaling US giants like SpaceX, Boeing, and Blue Origin.
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