Yuan Wang 5: Returned To The Maritime Neighbourhood Of India
China’s spy ship Yuan Wang 5 has returned to the maritime neighbourhood of India, three years after it had docked at Hambantota Port of Sri Lanka.
- Yuan Wang 5 launched in 2007, Yuan Wang 5 is part of a series of specialized tracking ships built by China for strategic space and missile monitoring.
- It is operated by China’s People’s Liberation Army Strategic Support Force.
- It can provide near-real-time situational awareness to the PLA Rocket Force and Navy.
- It also plays a role in validating the performance of China’s new generation of intercontinental ballistic missiles and hypersonic weapons, providing telemetry data critical for weapons development and operational readiness.
- It displaces about 25,000 tons, has a length of over 222 metres, a beam of over 25 metres, and can accommodate 400 people.
- The ship is driven by diesel engines and can generate sufficient electricity to light up a small town of over 300,000 inhabitants.
- With endurance measured in weeks, the ship can remain on station during key test windows or naval exercises.
- Its suite of high-power phased-array radar systems is capable of detecting ballistic missile launches at distances exceeding 3,000 kilometers.
- These radars track the trajectory of missiles through various flight stages, from boost to reentry, while simultaneously collecting telemetry signals that reveal propulsion performance, warhead separation, and guidance accuracy.
