In a worrying demonstration of military might, satellite images have revealed China‘s chilling drill practices, simulating the destruction of American fighter jets worth £78,000 each.
Captured on May 29, 2024, by Airbus and Google Earth, the photos show mock-ups of US F-35 and F-22 fighter jets in a remote desert area in northwest China.
The images suggest that many of these dummy aircraft were targeted and blown up, with a nearby runway displaying scorch marks and bomb blast craters.
The satellite pictures, which showcase these mock-up warplanes and the aftermath of apparent explosions, highlight China’s focus on practising against the latest US military technology.
The landscape is dotted with various types of aircraft models, along with several hangars and radar towers, indicating a comprehensive and realistic training environment for Chinese forces.
It comes as North Korea also test-fired two ballistic missiles Monday but one of them possibly flew abnormally, South Korea’s military said, a day after the North vowed “offensive and overwhelming” responses to a new US military drill with South Korea and Japan.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement the missiles were launched 10 minutes apart in a northeasterly direction from the town of Jangyon in southeastern North Korea.
It said the first missile flew 600 kilometres (370 miles) and the second missile 120 kilometres (75 miles), but didn’t say where they landed. North Korea typically test-fires missiles toward its eastern waters, but the second missile’s flight distance was too short to reach those waters.
Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Lee Sung Joon later told a briefing the second missile suffered a possible abnormal flight during the initial stage of its flight. He said if the missile exploded, its debris would likely have scattered on the ground though no damages was immediately reported. Lee said additional analysis of the second missile launch was underway.
South Korean media, citing unidentified South Korean military sources, reported that it was highly likely the second missile crashed in an inland area of the North. The reports said the first missile landed in the waters off the North’s eastern city of Chongjin.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff condemned the North’s launches as a provocation that poses a serious threat to peace on the Korean Peninsula. It said South Korea maintains a firm readiness to repel any provocations by North Korea in conjunction with the military alliance with the United States.
The launches came two days after South Korea, the US and Japan ended their new multi-domain trilateral drills in the region. In recent years, the three countries have been expanding their trilateral security partnership to better cope with North Korea’s evolving nuclear threats and China’s increasing assertiveness in the region.
The “Freedom Edge” drill was meant to increase the sophistication of previous exercises with simultaneous air and naval drills geared toward improving joint ballistic-missile defence, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance and other skills and capabilities. The three-day drill involved a US aircraft carrier as well as destroyers, fighter jets and helicopters from the three countries.
On Sunday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry issued a lengthy statement strongly denouncing the “Freedom Edge” drill, calling the US-South Korea-Japan partnership an Asian version of NATO. It said the drill openly destroyed the security environment on the Korean Peninsula and contained a US intention to lay siege to China and exert pressure on Russia.
The statement said North Korea will “firmly defend the sovereignty, security and interests of the state and peace in the region through offensive and overwhelming countermeasures.”