Build It and They Will Come; China preps Spratlys for military aircraft. Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Aug 9, 2016.
https://amti.csis.org/build-it-and-they-will-come/
paragraph 1: "Civilian planes landed on Subi and Mischief reefs for the first time on July 12, giving China three operational runways in the disputed Spratly Islands. Except for a brief visit by a military transport plane to Fiery Cross Reef earlier this year, there is no evidence that Beijing has deployed military aircraft to these outposts. But the rapid construction of reinforced hangars at all three features indicates that this is likely to change. Each of the three islets will soon have hangar space for 24 fighter-jets plus 3-4 larger planes. |