Image of world’s largest US naval base taken by ‘private’ Chinese satellite Social media It is released to the public and attracts attention.
This image, which first appeared on the Chinese social media platform Weibo a few days ago, was taken by Taijing-4 03, the first phased array radar imaging satellite launched by China on a ‘civilian’ basis.
Aircraft carriers and destroyers at the US Naval Base in Norfolk captured by China’s ‘civilian’ radar imaging satellite on March 4 this year./mino space
This satellite image showed the Norfolk Naval Base in Virginia, USA, facing the Atlantic Ocean, with three aircraft carriers, two Arleigh-Burke class destroyers, and four battleships that were difficult to identify.
Norfolk Naval Base is the largest US naval base in the world, with 11 aircraft storage facilities and 14 docks, with room for 75 warships and 134 fighter jets. The logo in the satellite photo is ‘Mino Space’, a private company called ‘Beijing Weiner Star Technology’. Mino Space is known to have released this video for commercial purposes.
In fact, China’s space surveillance and Earth reconnaissance capabilities are not new. It is estimated that the number of Chinese military reconnaissance satellites is already more than 300, second only to the United States in the world. The Chinese government also advertises satellites for military purposes as satellites for ‘civilian’ purposes.
For example, the Chinese government launched ‘Yaogan (Remote Sensing)-41’, a geostationary orbit (GEO) satellite at an altitude of 36,000 km, launched on December 15 last year to monitor the environment, measure crop yields, and observe the weather issued as a civilian satellite.
However, US military experts believe that the Yaogan-41 satellite, which has a resolution of 2.5 meters per pixel, is a military reconnaissance satellite to monitor the movements of naval warships up to the size of vehicles in the Asia-Pacific region, including Taiwan .
Chinese reconnaissance satellites are known to have a high resolution of up to 50 cm per pixel, depending on their purpose. It is said that the size of a single pixel in a satellite image is actually 50 cm wide and high, so identifying a 2.5 m object 36,000 km in the sky is the same as identifying a hair from 800 mi away.
A satellite image of the site of a failed Iranian rocket launch released by Trump on August 30, 2019./twitter
Meanwhile, America’s high-precision reconnaissance satellite is known to measure only a few centimeters per pixel. The resolution of the USA 224 reconnaissance satellite image, which was released on Twitter by the then US President, Donald Trump on August 30, 2019 and which sparked controversy about leaking confidential information, was estimated to be 10 cm per pixel.<위의 사진>.
However, the reason why the Norfolk Naval Base image taken by this ‘commercial purpose’ Chinese satellite is attracting attention is because it is being interpreted as a glimpse into China’s space surveillance capabilities.
Taijing-4 03 was launched from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu Province on January 23rd via Lijian-1 Y3, a commercial rocket. At the time, China’s state-run international television CGTN announced the launch of five Taijing constellation satellites, saying these satellites would have ‘civilian’ purposes such as disaster prevention, environmental monitoring, natural resource development, measurement crop yields, and mapping It was reported that .
In addition, the Global Times reported that the Taijing constellation satellite has a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and an artificial intelligence processor, and has the ability to transmit real-time images to quickly detect and identify targets at sea and airfields. These Taijing satellites, each weighing 230 kg, can take images 24 hours a day and in all weathers, and the resolution per pixel is known to be less than 1 meter. Radar images are transmitted and received from the ground in the Ku band frequency band.
In this regard, Eurasian Times said, “In general, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has various types of military and reconnaissance satellites that can detect enemy naval fleets several days before they approach Chinese territorial waters, but it is also ability to observe US naval bases 24 hours a day “If we have this capability, we can get a deeper insight into the readiness and capabilities of US warships,” he said.
Model of the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford placed by China in the Taklamakan Desert for a rocket/satellite strike exercise Planet Labs
On January 1 this year, a satellite from Planet Labs, an American private satellite company, caught China building models of the US aircraft carrier Gerald R Ford and an Arleigh-Burke class destroyer in the Taklamakan Desert in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. This was interpreted as an attempt to practice long-range rocket strikes.
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