From The Diplomat, November 1:
According to a U.S. think tank, the country is building runways and other “potential military structures” in the South China Sea.
Vietnamese construction work in the Spratly Islands continues to move forward, with “potential military structures” including runways taking shape on several of its outposts in the archipelago, a U.S. think tank said this week.
In a briefing released on Wednesday, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) stated that the ongoing developments show that Vietnam is “determined to maximize the strategic potential of the features it occupies” in the South China Sea.
AMTI, which is run by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., confirmed an earlier report by Radio Free Asia (RFA) that Vietnam was building a runway on Barque Canada Reef, the largest feature that it controls in the Spratly Islands. Following recent land reclamation works, RFA reported, the island now stretches over a length of 4.5 kilometers, “making it possible to develop an airstrip of 3,000 meters or more.”
According to AMTI, “the area currently being prepared for paving is approximately 8,000 feet [2,438 meters] long.” This is around twice the length of Vietnam’s 1,300-meter runway on Spratly Island, and would be “sufficient for most aircraft to take off and land at sea level.”
AMTI said that the new runway on Barque Canada Reef “significantly expands Vietnam’s options for deploying combat aircraft to the Spratly Islands,” which are also claimed, in whole or in part, by Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei. China has already constructed 3,000-meter runways on three of its own features in the Spratly Islands.
AMTI said that there were signs that airstrips were under development on other Vietnamese-controlled features in the Spratlys. One location it mentioned was the western end of Pearson Reef, which “has been rapidly expanded in recent months and brought to a conspicuous length of 8,200 feet [2,499 meters].” It added, “With work now beginning to fill in this extended area, it would be unsurprising to see another runway materialize at Pearson.”....
....MUCH MORE
China and Vietnam have already had a battle over the Spratlys and over the Paracels* so this may be a flashpoint.
*‘Speed forward, fight close and hit hard’ — How China won the Battle of the Paracel Islands
