Photo Shows China Missile System Replica Training US Fighter Pilots
Newsweek has contacted the Wisconsin National Guard and the Chinese Defense Ministry for comment via email.
The Pentagon has designated the Indo-Pacific as its "priority theater," identifying China as both its "pacing threat"-a direct, consequential and near-term danger to U.S. security and values-and its "pacing challenge"-a long-term risk to U.S. influence, position and power.
In July, U.S. forces participated in two large-scale Pacific war games simultaneously-the Australia-hosted, multinational Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025 and the U.S. Air Force's "first in a generation" Department-Level Exercise series-amid growing threats from China.
According to a photo released by the Wisconsin National Guard on Tuesday, the Volk Field Combat Readiness Training Center showcased an "HQ-16 towable surrogate target" during an aviation gathering at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on July 25.
The HQ-16 is a Chinese medium-range air defense missile system. The towable surrogate target replicates the system's radar vehicle, a Chinese military observer who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the topic told Newsweek.
In a news release, the Wisconsin National Guard said the Chinese air defense system replica serves as a full-scale training aid designed to familiarize fifth-generation fighter pilots with modern surface-to-air missile systems they may encounter in a combat scenario.
The term "fifth-generation fighter" refers to aircraft designed with stealth capabilities that reduce their visibility to radar detection. Both the U.S. and China operate such combat jets and are racing to develop more advanced next-generation-or sixth-generation-aircraft.
Full-scale mock-ups allow aircrews to train against realistic representations of peer and near-peer threats, according to David Cenciotti, the editor of the Aviationist.
"Depending on the type of decoy, they can support visual identification as well as the detection of electronic signatures via onboard sensors," Cenciotti told Newsweek.
He added that some of the world's most advanced training ranges were equipped with so-called high definition targets, which are used for both visual and sensor training.
According to the Aviationist, the HQ-16 air defense system initially had a range of about 24.8 miles to intercept aerial targets, with the upgraded version extending this to about 46.6 miles.
U.S. Air Force Technical Sergeant Alan Hughes, a vehicle maintenance specialist assigned to the Volk Field Combat Readiness Training Center, said in a news release on Tuesday: "People are often familiar with our aircraft, but may not understand all the effort that goes into getting those planes into the fight. Our HQ-16 target display offers a tiny snippet of all the behind-the-scenes work that goes into keeping our pilots and aircraft combat-ready."
David Cenciotti, the editor of the Aviationist, told Newsweek: "Similar mock-ups have been observed in the past at U.S. test ranges, as documented by reports and satellite imagery, and are often used to replicate adversary systems for threat emulation and pilot training."
It is likely that the U.S. military has increased its use of such decoys in training. The most recent mock-ups in the U.S. all replicate Chinese military hardware, according to Cenciotti.
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