In a report, China’s state-backed propaganda mouthpiece The Global Times said, “Specialists from the People’s Liberation Army of China have conducted a unique test”: they have detonated a non-nuclear underwater charge to simulate the destruction of a port with a closed harbor.
The Global Times said, it is a “miracle weapon” that will help destroy aircraft carriers and US naval bases.
The test was conducted as part of a weapons development program aimed at destroying naval bases and aircraft carriers.
The weapon is a definite threat to Taiwan, which Beijing aims to invade and annex.
According to the Global Times’ report, around 1,000 sensors captured a host of data which can be used for modeling subsequent underwater explosions.
With this, Global Times claims that China can “erase from the face of the earth” all coastal infrastructures including ports. Incidentally, the Global Times did not shed light on what kind of port the underwater weapon was tested upon.
With this detonation, China has claimed it is the first country to destroy the coastal infrastructure of ports saying such developments are directly aimed at deterring the United States in a potential war at sea.
According to the Global Times, China is developing a “miracle weapon” in case of a “great war” in its quest for invade and annex Taiwan, which the United States is bound to protect by law.
Regardless of these claims, it is clear that the Chinese are trying to copy Russia’s “Status-6”, known as “Poseidon” – an unmanned “super-torpedo” which is equipped with a nuclear engine, which they claim can defeat naval bases and destroy enemy ships anchored there.
Moscow is developing Poseidon as a torpedo capable of carrying a “multi-megaton nuclear warhead.”
Earlier, Christopher Ford, an assistant secretary of state had opined that Poseidon could trigger a tsunami by blowing itself up near the shore.
Moscow is also building four submarine carriers, which can carry a total of 12 torpedoes with nuclear “multi-megaton” warheads.
According to Russian military analyst Dmitry Litovkin, Poseidon has the capability to remain dormant – sleep on the sea bed for years, which could make it very difficult to detect for naval radars. The torpedo can be activated once it gets a “call” from Moscow.
According to Russian scientist Pavel Luzin, by laying dormant, Poseidon can also be used to track the behavior of enemy fleets.
Publicly available dimensions of Poseidon shows that it will take up a lot of space in submarines, which for all practical purposes makes it unusable for anything else.
According to Kingston Rafe, an American expert on nuclear research, the Russian Poseidon project is essentially of building torpedoes and submarines-carriers. Poseidon is a “Russian grotesque” aimed at countering “heavy US investment in missile defense.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Poseidon as an “insurance policy” against Washington’s possible downing of its ballistic missile defense.
