A Large Blimp of the Chinese Military has been detected with U.S. Satellite Technology

China’s ‘near space’ program

Jacobs told CNN that  China is really ramping up their airship program and the real danger is if a truly large airship emerges from the hangar.

“At this site in particular, I would really want to see the big airship,” Hayes said.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correctly reflect the US sources CNN reached out to and that they declined to address the blimp and the remote Chinese military base.

The spy balloon incident from January brought significant attention to China’s airship program, revealing how useful airships can be to its spying activities. According to a 2018 report by the Rand Corporation on the country’s modern warfare strategy, these types of airships are attractive to the Chinese because they’re “less expensive … and provide more-precise intelligence” than satellites, in addition to being “less susceptible to destruction” than planes.

Although China is not alone in utilizing airships – the US military has used aerostats – this discovery now confirms the PLA program uses all three types of airships: blimps, aerostats and free-floating balloons.

Eli Hayes, a researcher who has studied the Chinese airship program for years, also noted that the blimp’s appearance at a Chinese military facility marks a notable transition in Chinese blimp technology and research – it’s not just civilian anymore.

“It’s not just people talking about possible applications or use cases,” Hayes told CNN, explaining that past Chinese airships and accomplishments have been constructed by research institutions and universities. While it’s unclear whether those institutions assisted in the creation of this blimp, Hayes does note that some are known to have deep ties to the People’s Liberation Army, and at least one has been on a US sanctions list for decades.

CNN asked the Chinese Defense Ministry about the blimp, and its purpose, but did not immediately receive a response. China is in the midst of a five-day May Day holiday.

Military patents

Additional satellite imagery and analysis of the site suggests that the PLA has significantly loftier goals for its site, and its airship program.

Exclusive: Never-before-seen Chinese military blimp caught on satellite images of remote desert base

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The large, 400 foot long cradle, bears striking resemblance to figures from a Chinese patent, held by the newly formed PLA unit 63660. - Courtesy BlackSky

“If I had to guess, [this blimp is] probably some sort of testing,” said William Kim, a surveillance balloon specialist at The Marathon Initiative, a non-profit military and diplomatic research organization.

Where the airship program fits into the Chinese military’s overall organizational structure remains a mystery, although patents are giving a glimpse that they’ve recently created a unit to oversee the technology.

A number of patents involving airship technologies were recently reassigned to a new PLA group – Unit 63660 – according to Hayes. A CNN review of Chinese patents confirms that the new unit holds a number of other patents relating to airship technology and storage, and that they were recently reassigned from a previous PLA unit.

A 900-foot hangar

When the PLA originally built the massive 900-foot hangar in 2013, there was little to no activity around it for years, according to a CNN review of hundreds of satellite images. When winter storms would cover the desert base with snow, other areas of the complex and roadways would be plowed while the snow around most of the runway and hangar sat largely undisturbed.

CNN’s Steven Jiang contributed to this report