Various features of the boats are visible in the radar images he acquired, including the bow and missile box launchers. Sutton worked with San Francisco, California-based Capella Space to show that space-based Synthetic Aperture Radar can easily detect the boats. At the time, the People's Liberation Army Navy was powerless to stop the carrier from passing through the waterway separating Taiwan from mainland China. China likely built the large fleet of ships, useful for coastal defense, as a response to the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz's transit of the Taiwan Strait in 1995. Each is equipped with an AK-630 30-millimeter Gatling gun and eight YJ-83 anti-ship missiles, giving them the firepower of a destroyer. A catamaran design, each can sail at a top speed of 36 knots and support a crew of 14. Known as the Houbei-class, the tiny boats are just 141 feet long and displace 250 tons. In the mid-2000s, China built a fleet of 82 Type-022 fast-attack craft. This calls into serious question whether other forms of radar can detect the boats, too, and whether or not their stealthy lines are actually just for show. He has uncovered convincing evidence that the Type-022's radar-evading design is a myth. Sutton, author of the Covert Shores blog. The Houbei-class fast-attack boats, which bristle with anti-ship missiles, are easily seen in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) that remote sensing companies use, according to naval authority H.I.
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