A large airship developed by the Chinese military has been sighted for the first time at a remote base in the desert of northwest China, new exclusive satellite images obtained by CNN show. According to aerospace experts, the images, taken three months before a Chinese spy balloon was shot down off the coast of South Carolina, could signal a significant advance in China’s airship program and show a more versatile and maneuverable airship than those known. The images, taken in November 2022 by US satellite imagery company BlackSky, show an airship about 30 meters long in the middle of a nearly a kilometer long runway at a desert military complex.
CNN has shared the images with several aerospace experts, who have confirmed it is an airship and a runway bounded by a pivot used to launch airships, and a huge hangar nearly 900 feet (274 meters) tall . Jamey Jacobs, executive director of the Oklahoma Aerospace Institute, said such an airship could be used as a “submarine of the skies” and appeared to have propulsion and navigation capabilities that would allow it to fly over an area for an extended period of time .
Several US intelligence officials admitted knowing about the Chinese base but declined to speak about it or the airship. A senior Defense Department official declined to comment on the threats the airship posed to China’s arsenal, but said the Pentagon is aware because it is visible: “We can be expected to track it, because it’s available via satellite imagery of the object,” he said.