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China flexes military muscles with rare, large-scale missile test in Gobi Desert

Unprecedented scale of test signals Beijing’s growing confidence in its capacity to counter advanced threats and project dominance

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Chinese military scientists have detailed the results of testing a cutting-edge radar system, with 16 ballistic missiles fired in a single, very expensive exercise. Photo: CCTV
Stephen Chenin Beijing
In a quiet demonstration of its technological prowess, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has conducted a missile defence test in the Gobi Desert where as many as 16 ballistic missiles were fired on a single target to test a cutting-edge radar system’s ability to thwart saturation attacks.
The unprecedented scale of the test – rare even among global military powers – signals Beijing’s growing confidence in its capacity to counter advanced threats and project dominance in an increasingly tense geopolitical landscape.

According to a paper published on February 18, all missiles were successfully detected and tracked by a new dual-band (S/X) phased array radar system, before hitting the target with 100 per cent success.

The system achieved what the Chinese military scientists described as “early detection, precision measurement and accurate reporting” – critical metrics for neutralising advanced threats like hypersonic glide vehicles or missiles armed with decoys and multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRVs).

The test, detailed in Flight Control & Detection, a Chinese-language journal, marks the first public disclosure of China’s land-based early warning radar capabilities.

Its dual-band technology – similar to the US Navy’s USNS Howard O. Lorenzen missile-tracking ship – combines wide-area surveillance (S-band) with high-resolution targeting (X-band).

While the Lorenzen is hailed for its unmatched capability, with the potential to track more than 1,000 targets simultaneously, the United States has never publicly demonstrated its performance under live-fire conditions.

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