The warships in Zuoying Military Port in Taiwan have long been a staple of the People's Liberation Army. Whether to fight or not and when to fight is a political issue, not a technical one.
According to news released on the website of the U.S. Naval Institute, a U.S. commercial remote sensing satellite discovered a new shooting range in the Taklimakan Desert in western China, where many warship targets were set up. The image showed that one of the targets was hit by a missile. Accurate hit. Professional analysts believe that judging from the shape of the fence and the deployment location of the targets, this new shooting range is simulating Taiwan's Zuoying Military Port. Zuoying is located in Kaohsiung City and is the main base of the Taiwan Navy. The main battleships of the Taiwan Navy such as Chenggong class and Kangding class are basically docked here. Foreign media believe that the People's Liberation Army uses this shooting range to train the combat capabilities of Dongfeng 21D and Dongfeng 26 missiles. It can be clearly seen from the image that the target used to simulate the Perry-class frigate has been punched with several craters.
We can only laugh at this kind of analysis by foreign media. It is too unprofessional. Is this kind of target in Kaohsiung Zuoying Military Port worth using Dongfeng 21 or Dongfeng 26? To be precise, Zuoying Military Port is only two to three hundred kilometers away from the mainland coastline, and only 280 kilometers away from the southeast coast of Quanzhou, Fujian. It is within the range of the YJ-12B shore-based anti-ship missile. Using the JH-7 carrying the YJ-83 anti-ship missile, as long as it is dozens of kilometers away from the coasts of Fujian and Guangdong, it can enter the launch position and accurately sink all large and small ships in Zuoying Military Port. Of course, it is not impossible to use anti-ship ballistic missile . In 2021, relevant Chinese scientific research units exhibited the CM401 anti-ship ballistic missile at the Zhuhai Air Show, which is a foreign trade model. According to the control of international missile technology trade regulations, its range cannot exceed 300 kilometers. Even if this foreign trade model with a reduced range is used to attack Zuoying, it is enough. The cost of Dongfeng 21D or Dongfeng 26 is much higher than that of CM401. It would be a waste to use them to fight Taiwanese warships. They are prepared for the US military's aircraft carrier with a capacity of 6,000 people.
How to use the targets in in the Taklimakan Desert? Of course, there is another possibility, that is, it can be used as a target for the People's Liberation Army Air Force and Navy Air Force. On May 4, the U.S. Air Force publicly announced that it used an F15E fighter jet to destroy a ship target on the sea using a Joint Direct Attack Munition JDAM guided bomb. The heavy bomb is very powerful, no less powerful than the warhead of the anti-ship missile . If it can hit the warship accurately, it can certainly cause extremely effective damage. Pacific Naval War The US military used bombers to attack Japanese warships, and often used carrier-based attack aircraft to mount free-fall bombs to complete the attack. Japan's Akagi, Kaga aircraft carrier were all sunk by the US military using dive bombers .
China's defense industry has the ability to provide the People's Liberation Army with heavy-duty long-range glide bombs, and related products have been publicly displayed at the Zhuhai Air Show many times. There are two ways to use gliding guided bombs to attack warships in the harbor. One is to determine the coordinates in advance. The berths of the Zuoying Military Port are fixed and can be monitored by drones. As long as a valuable target is indeed docked at a certain berth, the coordinates can be immediately entered into the bomb's guidance system, and the attack aircraft will take off and drop the bomb. I don’t care anymore. Another method used more often by Americans is to add a laser seeker to the guided bomb , so that the attack aircraft can evacuate after dropping the bomb. The drone uses the laser target designator to illuminate the opponent's warship to guide the bomb to hit. This method is more accurate and timely, and can also temporarily change the target according to changes in the target. Of course, this requires the drone to continue flying in the air near Zuoying Military Port, which carries certain risks.
But no matter what, the warships in Zuoying Military Port in Taiwan have long been the food and drink of the People's Liberation Army. Whether to fight or not and when to fight is a political issue, not a technical one.
