PLAN SCS Bases/Islands/Vessels (Not a Strategy Page)

China has been expanding its naval facilities on Hainan Island but I haven't heard anything about upgrading their airfields. On Google Earth I found three airbases on Hainan Island that all look old and unimproved for years. They all have a single runway and lack bunkers for the aircraft. Air power plays a major role in SCS activities so it's surprising China hasn't build a major, modern airbase to upgrade their abilities.

Jeff Head said:

Bltizo, I tend to agree and have attempted, in the past, to keep the strategizing off of this thread.

We have two threads for SCS strategy, one for China and one for other nations. That has been done to try and alleviate some of the high emotion that goes with the various claimants.

This thread should be more about the factual nature of what is occurring at the bases and the islands.

I will once again emphasize that point here.

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Hey Jeff, what I meant was more that it might be good to separate the navy's "South Sea Fleet" related activities separate to the "South China Sea" island disputes and the reclamation mostly because we don't know if the reclaimed islands come under the jurisdiction of the SSF and we don't even really know if they are controlled by the navy yet. Also, given the somewhat volatile nature of the territorial dispute, including its discussion (even regarding only what is factually occurring) may mean that any posts about the actual naval activities of the SSF which are unrelated to the islands may be overridden.

Bltizo said:

Hey Jeff, what I meant was more that it might be good to separate the navy's "South Sea Fleet" related activities separate to the "South China Sea" island disputes and the reclamation mostly because we don't know if the reclaimed islands come under the jurisdiction of the SSF and we don't even really know if they are controlled by the navy yet. Also, given the somewhat volatile nature of the territorial dispute, including its discussion (even regarding only what is factually occurring) may mean that any posts about the actual naval activities of the SSF which are unrelated to the islands may be overridden.

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I lean more your way as well. It also gets a little tricky with three different threads covering SCS claim related issues and conversations easily spill over from one category over to the other in present format - SCS fleet/base/islands, SCS Chinese strategy, and SCS non-Chinese strategy.

My $0.02 would be to streamline. Have a South Sea Fleet thread by itself for purely naval fleet topics. Merge the Paracel/Spratly bases/islands, SCS claim Chinese strategy, and the SCS claim non-Chinese strategy categories into one lump thread. There's already a SE Asian military thread for those fleet topics. Probably less work for Jeff as a result when it comes to sorting overlap.

Recent naval exercises in the South China Sea, on 22-July-2015. It's 2:36 long, enjoy!

Blackstone said:

I question the wisdom of US providing Manila with symbolic assistance that makes no difference in its ability to influence China's strategic gambit, while at the same time upsetting Beijing for little or no gain. If Obama is in for a penny, then he should be in for a pound, so either lead, follow, or get out of the way.

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What you are seeing is a disagreement between Obama and the USA Administration, and the US Navy. Obama wants to do nothing, and the USN wants the opposite course.

Jeff Head said:

Bltizo, I tend to agree and have attempted, in the past, to keep the strategizing off of this thread.

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Well since the reefs, now islands, soon to be bases, shall soon be part of the South Sea Fleet, a reorganisation may be in order since the area of the SSF shall extend greatly. The building will one day result in a base part of the SSF.

What something 'is', wrt this topic, is changing categories dynamically.

There is speculation that China will build another 3 km airstrip on Subi Island. I wonder why build another airstrip close to Yongshu (Fiery Cross) Island, which already has one.

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By Victor Robert Lee

Satellite imagery of Subi Reef in the Spratly Islands taken July 18, 2015 shows intensive preparation of terrain for a likely airstrip. A straight segment of reef that China has filled in with sand can easily accommodate a runway more than three kilometers long. At a width of approximately 250 meters, this straight segment also could accommodate a runway accompanied by a parallel taxiway like that recently constructed by China at Fiery Cross Reef; the total width of the Fiery Cross runway plus taxiway is approximately 125 meters, with a runway width of 54 meters. (For comparison, the primary runway at the B-52-hosting Andersen Air Force Base on Guam is 3,414 meters long and 61 meters wide.)

Approximately 48 large cranes are in operation on the likely area of the runway, carrying out a widely used dynamic compaction technique to compress dredged-up sand and coral cuttings in order to increase the stability of the substrate for the runway. Most of the dynamic compaction cranes present in the image from July 18 are accompanied by backhoes, which are used to fill in the craters left by the compaction weights dropped by the cranes. Notably, no compaction cranes are visible in areas of the filled-in reef outside the probable runway site.

The fleet of concrete transport trucks on Subi has increased to 34, from 20 in a June 5, 2015 satellite image, probably in preparation for laying of a concrete airstrip. For comparison, during the concrete laying for the first half of the runway on Fiery Cross, 20 concrete transport trucks were present.

Dredging at Subi has essentially been stopped. Two dredgers remain, only one of which is connected to a sediment pipe and may or may not be in operation; by contrast, on June 5, 2015, 14 dredgers were present. However, as of July 18, 54 large supply ships are present at Subi, up from 38 on June 5, signaling a ramp-up of construction now that land filling operations have ceased (except for efforts to widen the terrain at the north rim).

ahojunk said:

There is speculation that China will build another 3 km airstrip on Subi Island. I wonder why build another airstrip close to Yongshu (Fiery Cross) Island, which already has one.

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Because when you look at the three islands/reefs where airfields are going in, they are all mutually supportive.

Subi, Fiery Cross, and Mischief reefs form a triangle of power, support, and capability in the SCS.



Below is Subi Reef:



Below is Fiery Cross Reef:



Below is Mischief Reef:



See my:

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