China able to deploy warplanes on artificial islands any time: US think tank

China appears to have largely completed major construction of military infrastructure on artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea and can now deploy combat planes and other military hardware there at any time, a U.S. think tank said on Monday.

The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), part of Washington`s Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the work on Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reefs in the Spratly Islands included naval, air, radar and defensive facilities.

The think tank cited satellite images taken this month, which its director, Greg Poling, said showed new radar antennae on Fiery Cross and Subi.
"So look for deployments in the near future," he said.

China has denied U.S. charges that it is militarizing the South China Sea, although last week Premier Li Keqiang said defense equipment had been placed on islands in the disputed waterway to maintain "freedom of navigation."

China's Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Tuesday she was unaware of the details of the think tank's report, but added the Spratly Islands were China`s inherent territory.

"As for China deploying or not deploying necessary territorial defensive facilities on its own territory, this is a matter that is within the scope of Chinese sovereignty," she told a daily news briefing.

A Pentagon spokesman, Commander Gary Ross, declined to comment on the specifics of the AMTI report, saying it was not the Defense Department`s practice to comment on intelligence.

But he said that "China's continued construction in the South China Sea is part of a growing body of evidence that they continue to take unilateral actions which are increasing tensions in the region and are counterproductive to the peaceful resolution of disputes."

AMTI said China`s three air bases in the Spratlys and another on Woody Island in the Paracel chain further north would allow its military aircraft to operate over nearly the entire South China Sea, a key global trade route that Beijing claims most of.

Several neighboring states have competing claims in the sea, which is widely seen as a potential regional flashpoint.

The think tank said advanced surveillance and early-warning radar facilities at Fiery Cross, Subi and Cuarteron Reefs, as well as Woody Island, and smaller facilities elsewhere gave it similar radar coverage.

It said China had installed HQ-9 surface-to-air missiles at Woody Island more than a year ago and had deployed anti-ship cruise missiles there on at least one occasion. 

It had also constructed hardened shelters with retractable roofs for mobile missile launchers at Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief and enough hangars at Fiery Cross for 24 combat aircraft and three larger planes, including bombers.

U.S. officials told Reuters last month that China had finished building almost two dozen structures on Subi, Mischief and Fiery Cross that appeared designed to house long-range surface-to-air missiles.

In his Senate confirmation hearing in January, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson angered China by saying it should be denied access to islands it had built up in the South China Sea.

Tillerson subsequently softened his language, saying that in the event of an unspecified "contingency," the United States and its allies "must be capable of limiting China`s access to and use of" those islands to pose a threat.

In recent years, the United States has conducted a series of what it calls freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, raising tensions with Beijing.

China's military facilities on man-made South China Sea islands nearly ready: Report

China is almost ready to operationalise dozens of aircraft hangars and high-end radar facilities on artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea, which experts say could help Beijing establish a controversial Air Defense Identification Zone in the area.

According to new satellite imagery released by a US-based think tank show nearly completed defense infrastructure on Fiery Cross, Mischief and Subi reefs, three of China's largest artificial islands in the disputed Spratly chain.

Each of the islands has new aircraft hangers, capable of holding 24 military aircraft, as well as several larger hangars that can hold bombers or surveillance planes, according to the images released by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, AMTI.

The new facilities will further establish China's military dominance over the highly contested region, experts told CNN, and could help China establish a controversial Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the area.

Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying said today she was not aware of the report's details but reiterated the Spratly Islands were Chinese territory.

"Whether we decide to deploy or not deploy relevant military equipment, it is within our scope of sovereignty. It's our right to self-defense and self-preservation as recognised by international law," Hua said.

Fiery Cross, Mischief and Subi reefs are the largest of seven artificial islands built by China in the Spratlys. China claims the majority of the South China Sea as its territory, despite overlapping claims by a number of other Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines and Vietnam.

Four bigger hangars have already been completed on Subi Reef, as well as another four on Fiery Cross Reef, the AMTI said, citing imagery taken this month.
Hangars to accommodate five larger planes, such as bombers, were in the final stages of construction on Mischief Reef.

"China's three military bases in the Spratlys and another on Woody Island in the Paracels will allow Chinese military aircraft to operate over nearly the entire South China Sea," AMTI said in a statement.

In addition to the hangars, new radar domes are in various stages of construction on each artificial island, about three arrays on each reef. Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief reefs now all also have shelters for mobile missiles launchers, according to AMTI.

The establishment of an Air Defense Identification Zone, dubbed ADIZ, in the South China Sea has long been considered a possibility by analysts, especially in the wake of July's international court decision against China's maritime claims.

China declared its East China Sea ADIZ in November 2013, antagonising Japan and the United States, who both said they did not recognise it.

A similar zone in the South China Sea could rapidly increase tensions in the region, CNN quoted experts as saying.

"The worry has to be that if China bases its military aircraft (in the South China Sea), they could fly up and challenge anyone's military aircraft or civilian aircraft if they wanted to," said Carl Thayer, regional security analyst and emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales.

China had very rarely enforced its previous ADIZ, and any new zone in the south sea would start out as mostly "symbolic," Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies Yusof Ishak Institute, said.

"And the US will ignore it as it did with the East China Sea ADIZ," he said. "The interesting question is really how the Southeast Asian states will respond."
Though the infrastructure is almost ready, no military aircraft has been deployed to the islands yet, Storey said.

China's next step would be to very slowly deploy planes to the artificial islands to gauge the local and US response, Thayer said.

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