09 May 2017

News Story: Satellite images reveal Chinese expansion in South China Sea

By: Barbara Opall-Rome

TEL AVIV, Israel — Imagery captured Monday from an ImageSat International (ISI) Eros B satellite indicates Chinese preparations for new land-based missile installations on an increasingly strategic island base in the South China Sea. 

The high-resolution imagery, shown here for the first time, reveals recent changes in the layout of the People’s Liberation Army’s Yulin Naval Base at the tip of Hainan Island in the disputed Scarborough Shoal. In less than two months, the PLA deployed multiple missile launchers on the western side of the base, deployments that  ISI imagery analyst Amit Gur has concluded are anti-ship missiles. 

“The direction in which the launchers are facing leads us to believe these are shore-to-ship missiles,” Gur told Defense News. 

Read the full story at DefenseNews