China Has Built Mock-Ups of U.S. Aircraft Carrier, Warships in the Desert

China appears to have built models with the dimensions of a U.S. aircraft carrier and other warships in a western desert, illustrating how the People’s Liberation Army is focused on increasingly realistic training as tension with the U.S. rises over Taiwan.

Satellite imagery from a remote desert in the western Xinjiang region of China that the PLA uses for exercises shows outlines in the shape of a Nimitz-class carrier and at least two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, according to details provided by two Colorado-based firms. The findings show the carrier-size structure appears to be built on railway tracks to enable its movement.