China Ballistic Missiles and Nuclear Arms Thread

[nabla]

Is there a Chinese god(dess ) of the Sea?

Ao Guang or his brothers Ao Run and Ao Qing, described as the dragon kings of seas in journey to the west would probably be the most logical choices. Sea god Yuqiang is another possibility, and so is flood/storm dragon Jiaolong.

There are several others like Mazu but they would not work that well.

 

[escobar]

I did some more digging and I believe they are much more likely to be wind farm bases. I think its actually 2 separate wind farms being constructed at the same time. The northern cluster of 50 should be a 200MW wind farm, while the southern cluster of 69/70 is another 200MW wind farm. From the project listings, it looks like part of the phase 2 of the Jiuquan 10GW wind farm base. The developers are likely to be Datang group （大唐） and CGNPC（中广核, so its kinda nuclear haha). The spacing itself makes sense for the current 2/3/4MW sized wind turbines that is being erected in the area. These have blade diameters of around 165m. If you use the rule of thumb calculation of 15x blade diameter for the minimum optimal spacing, you get around 2500m distance between the basis. The wind farm currently marked on their map is the CGNPC's 50MW Yumen Heiyazhi wind farm put into operation in 2019/2020. That baby did 3800 full load hour last year so the area is definitely a gold mine for wind! To the south is the Datang Changma wind farm, another 50MW plant from a decade back.
Jiuquan wind farm base just hit 10GW installed capacity last month, and is part of the 14-5 plan for renewable energy. The HVDC feed line going to Hunan and another going to Shandong basically restarted the wind farm boom in the area again.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1413556678939881475

 

[Richard Santos]

This

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1413556678939881475

View attachment 74505

This is worthless. Simply labeling something to be an ICBM silo under construction does not make it so. Perhaps they can explain why the labeling is not only plausibly correct, but probably correct.

The only thing I’ve seen that’s been used to support the notion that these are missile silos under construction is the inflatable building over the construction site appear to resemble a similar inflatable building said to be an Chinese missile training range in Jilingtai. However, inflatable temporary domes are commonly used in situation where these is requirement for temporary shelter from the weather. There is no evidence provided that these domes are somehow uniquely related to missiles. There is no evidence provided that what is under the specific dome on jilingtai missile training area is actually anything missile related, and not, for example, a temporary in door basketball court or physical training range for the staff.

 

[escobar]

This

This is worthless. Simply labeling something to be an ICBM silo under construction does not make it so. Perhaps they can explain why the labeling is not only plausibly correct, but probably correct.

The only thing I’ve seen that’s been used to support the notion that these are missile silos under construction is the inflatable building over the construction site appear to resemble a similar inflatable building said to be an Chinese missile training range in Jilingtai. However, inflatable temporary domes are commonly used in situation where these is requirement for temporary shelter from the weather. There is no evidence provided that these domes are somehow uniquely related to missiles. There is no evidence provided that what is under the specific dome on jilingtai missile training area is actually anything missile related, and not, for example, a temporary in door basketball court or physical training range for the staff.

Yes still not clear but seems the "headframe" is something similar to the RU silos with sloped sides...

 

[Hendrik_2000]

This is what the inside inflatable shelter look like Seem big enough for excavator, dumpster and drilling equipment. And if it windmill the question, it beg why they have to hide it in elaborate shelter?

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1412210670188122118

 

[Richard Santos]

It could be for hiding, or it could be for weather shelter. If they want the construction to proceed through inclement weather because speed and quality of construction take precedence over cost, they might decide to erect a temporary shelter over the construction site.

 

[plawolf]

Considering it’s the middle of the summer, the shelters could be to allow for aircon to cool the work area to avoid potentially dangerous working conditions and also improve overall productivity of workers who are not overheating.

If they wanted to use the tents to hide what they were doing, they could easily have lined it with aluminium or steel foil to prevent radar from looking through it.

 

[Hendrik_2000]

It could be for hiding, or it could be for weather shelter. If they want the construction to proceed through inclement weather because speed and quality of construction take precedence over cost, they might decide to erect a temporary shelter over the construction site.

Come on Chinese worker has been working in Taklamakan dessert building railway or Dessert in Africa I never see them erecting A/C shelter. they might have a/c in their dorm

 

[escobar]

A SAR image of one of the windmills for comparison

 

[Godzilla]

A SAR image of one of the windmills for comparison
View attachment 74523

They aren't exactly of the same scale these satellite images. Also, the silos and wind turbine foundations don't look too different. Here is one prior to back fill. Should be similar sized in the 3-4MW range, ~140m tall.

And here is the top view of another one. (don't it look like the photo of the one they had with the shelter removed? well backfilled)

The way they marked it up is kind of useless. When you are building the silo or wind turbine, you will have spoils excavating something that big that needs to piled somewhere for the back fill. You will also have run offs somewhere to dewater/ dust suppression. It is kind of weird why they have weather shelter in place though. Would warrant checking the prevailing wind directions to see if its headed in the direction of town from the top of these hill sides as a possible reason.
I kinda imagine aside from the foundation, they would have probably poured the crane pad near the road side as well to facilitate turbine installation, which may explain why it looked like the shape it does since a continuous single block pour is cheaper with less formwork.

Is the structure in Jilantai permanent or temporary? If these are temporary construction aids, then isn't it completely different straight away? I note that on the side of the one in Jilantai, they marked it as blower/ environmental control, where as on these ones in Yumen, I see trucks parked there, potentially taking the spoils elsewhere.
Not sure if the satellite resolution is high enough to see the anchor bolts. If you see the anchor bolts around, then it is definitely turbine foundations!