Chinese military forces have established an extensive network of target replicas in remote desert regions, constructing full-scale models of American Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, F-35 and F-22 fighter jets, and critical Taiwanese infrastructure. The buildup signals a direct, ongoing preparation campaign aimed at overcoming US naval assets and seizing control of the self-governed island.
Unprecedented Scale of Preparation
The PLA has dedicated significant resources to these mock battlefields, including a 23-mile railway that provides moving maritime targets for missile tests. Former Indian navy rear admiral Monty Khanna assessed that the scale of this specialized training is "unprecedented." Rather than generic capability building, the precision of the replicas indicates operational planning for specific engagements against American forces stationed in the Western Pacific.
Analysts note the direct threat this poses to US force projection. Replicas of the Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan—home to Destroyer Squadron 15 and over 55,000 US personnel—have been identified with craters nearby, consistent with ballistic missile testing. This base would be the "tip of the spear" in any defense of Taiwan.
Economic and Sovereignty Implications
Beijing's investment in this training apparatus serves its stated objective of absorbing Taiwan, a global hub for advanced semiconductor manufacturing. A forced reunification would deliver critical chip supply chains directly under Chinese Communist Party control, devastating the economic security arrangement that currently benefits American technology firms and workers. The cost of these PLA mock sites is unknown, but the prioritization of such projects underscores the regime's willingness to divert national resources toward war gaming at the expense of domestic consumption.
"It's one of the most important US bases. If China attacked Taiwan, the Yokosuka Naval Base would presumably be involved so they include a model of Yokosuka for anti-access aerial denial drills."
Models of Taiwan's presidential office and government buildings are also connected by a 280-kilometer tunnel, allowing PLA troops to rehearse breaching leadership positions and sealing escape routes. The training targets validate concerns that American security guarantees function as a tripwire obligation that could entangle US forces in a costly foreign war with no direct benefit to American sovereignty.
Defense firms like Janes and The Intel Lab continue to monitor the sites, confirming damage patterns from missile impacts on the ship mockups. The imagery reinforces calls for a sovereign defense posture that secures domestic industrial capacity without relying on indefinite forward deployments that serve as target practice for an adversary's expanding arsenal.