According to Defense News, China is positioning an airbase on the coast of the East China Sea, adding facilities that potentially allow it to permanently place fighter jets closer to Taiwan and islands of which China and Japan claim ownership.
The satellite photos taken in April show that the construction of new 24 aircraft shelters, taxiways and other buildings are about to be completed at the air base near the city of Xiapu, in the Fujian coastal province of China.
The new aircraft shelters are built in a semi-dispersed state in six groups of four, with two clusters built near the end of the single runway of 1,7 miles and the rest located in one of the two aircraft leakage areas that already has 15 of the 20 shelters of aircraft camouflaged at the base. Each of the new shelters measures about 100 feet in length and 60 in width, which is more than enough to accommodate the family of Sukhoi Su-30 / 35 and Shenyang J-11 / 15 / 16 Flanker fighter aircraft.
Several military buildings were built as part of the upgrading project, which also includes five new barracks along with what Colonel Vinayak Bhat, formerly used as an analyst of satellite imagery with the Indian army, said he appears to be a parking garage and testing and inspection facilities for vehicles. The land compensation area is also located in the northeastern corner of the base complex, suggesting that additional facilities could be added.
The semi-dispersed nature of the new aircraft shelters is a departure from normal practice at the Chinese bases, whose shelters are normally constructed in a straight line with the aircraft housed parked next to each other, and is likely to reflect the nature of the front of the air base.
The base is located 160 miles from Taiwan's capital Taipei and 225 miles from the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, making it closer to the islands than the closest Japanese fighter plane which is 260 miles away in Naha. in Okinawa. China also claims ownership of the islands, which it calls the Diaoyu Islands.
The construction of the new aircraft shelters at the airbase could indicate that China has decided to turn it into a full-fledged base of operations with its own permanently assigned fighter aircraft flock. It had previously only been used as a deployment base since completion in 2012, hosting ongoing rotating detachments of around 12 Army fighter jets.
These rotations, which satellite photos almost always show include the Sukhoi Su-30 multirole fighter or the China-built Shenyang J-11 interceptors, are believed to be increasingly used to accompany the PLAAF bomber and aircraft gathering information about the Western Pacific into space international plane over the Miyako Strait, with data released by the Japanese Ministry of Defense showing fighters headed for Xiapu.
The fighters are usually followed by refueling aircraft over Miyako Strait before turning back, which is equivalent to a round trip of more than 1.000 miles from Xiapu.
PLAAF bombers have also made more and more flights to circumnavigate the island of Taiwan, which China considers a rogue province and said that if necessary it will return to using force. The last mission reported on 11 May saw two groups of Xian H-6K bombers circumnavigating Taiwan from the north and south of the island at the same time, with one group flying clockwise and the other counterclockwise.
According to the announcement by the Chinese Ministry of National Defense, Sukhoi Su-35 fighters flew over the Bashi Canal south of Taiwan, which would make it the first time that the aircraft was used in such missions. The flights stimulated both the Japan Air Self-Defense Force and the Republic of China Taiwan Air Force to intercept and observe PLAAF bombers and intelligence gathering aircraft, which according to the Japanese Ministry of Defense included Tupolev Tu- 154 and Shaanxi Y-8.