Source: CSIS
Satellite imagery from April 28 reveals the first image of a military aircraft, a Shaanxi Y-8, deployed to China’s base at Subi Reef in the Spratly Islands. This follows Chinese media reports from March 2018 that a Y-8 had landed on the reef to evacuate a fisherman who required medical assistance.
The Y-8 was designed as a military transport aircraft, but some variants are used for maritime patrol or signals intelligence. This should be particularly concerning to the Philippines, which has about 100 civilians and a small military garrison on Thitu Island just 12 nautical miles away.
With these deployments, military aircraft have now verifiably landed on all three of China’s airstrips in the Spratly Islands. The first was a “naval patrol aircraft,” possibly a Y-8 or similar plane, which landed at Fiery Cross Reef in April 2016 to evacuate three personnel who had fallen ill.
Last month, the Philippine Daily Inquirer published an aerial photo dated January 6 showing two Xian Y-7 military transport aircraft on Mischief Reef. That landing was especially galling for the Philippines because an arbitral tribunal in 2016 ruled that Mischief Reef is a piece of the Philippine continental shelf.
Image sourced: The Philippine Daily Inquirer
Read more at: https://amti.csis.org/accounting-chinas-deployments-spratly-islands/