Satellite images reveal China has built a full-scale replica of a US Navy destroyer in the Taklamakan Desert. Pictures provided by US company Vantor show a model resembling an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer in Xinjiang. The replica was first identified by Joseph Wu, co-founder of the Taiwan Defense Studies Initiative, according to a Bloomberg report from June 2026. This development follows a recent Chinese submarine-launched ballistic missile test that raised region-wide alarms. China test-fired a long-range ballistic missile from a nuclear-powered submarine, carrying a dummy warhead, which landed in the Pacific.