24 Feb 16. China again uses Woody Island for military posturing. As China’s foreign minister arrived in Washington, DC, on 23 February, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) despatched Xian Aircraft Corporation JH-7 and Shenyang Aircraft Corporation J-11 multirole fighters to Woody Island in the Paracel Island Group in the northern South China Sea, according to US officials.
This is the second occasion in February that China has used Woody Island for military posturing. PLA HQ-9 fourth-generation surface-to-air missile systems were deployed to Woody Island to coincide with US president Barack Obama’s hosting of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit on 15-16 February in Sunnylands, California.
On 23 February Fox News reported the fighter deployments had been “seen by US intelligence on Woody Island in the past few days”. Very likely this was done to underscore China’s increasing opposition to the Obama administration’s diplomatic and legal strategy of contesting China’s territorial claims in the region with air and naval freedom of navigation operations. Although occupied by China, Woody Island is also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.
In late October 2015 China’s military press disclosed that PLA Navy Air Force J-11BH fighters had deployed to Woody Island. (Chinese internet)
However, the deployments of the HQ-9 systems and the strike fighters can also be seen as a PLA effort to ‘regularise’ its force deployments to its South China Sea island bases. In an 18 February interview in Manila, US Pacific Fleet commander Admiral Scott Swift disclosed that the latest HQ-9 deployment was the third such deployment to Woody Island by the PLA.
Though infrequent, it is likely that China has made many fighter deployments to its airstrip on Woody Island, although China’s military press only disclosed such a deployment – involving a flight of PLA Navy J-11BH fighters – for the first time in late October 2015.
Also, in August 2015 a high-resolution image appeared on Chinese military web pages of a JH-7A strike fighter flying over Woody Island. Previous Chinese military press imagery indicates that PLA Navy Shenyang J-8II fighters have visited Woody Island, which has had a lengthened airstrip since the late 1990s. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
24 Feb 16. China again uses Woody Island for military posturing. As China’s foreign minister arrived in Washington, DC, on 23 February, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) despatched Xian Aircraft Corporation JH-7 and Shenyang Aircraft Corporation J-11 multirole fighters to Woody Island in the Paracel Island Group in the northern South China Sea, according to US officials.
This is the second occasion in February that China has used Woody Island for military posturing. PLA HQ-9 fourth-generation surface-to-air missile systems were deployed to Woody Island to coincide with US president Barack Obama’s hosting of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit on 15-16 February in Sunnylands, California.
On 23 February Fox News reported the fighter deployments had been “seen by US intelligence on Woody Island in the past few days”. Very likely this was done to underscore China’s increasing opposition to the Obama administration’s diplomatic and legal strategy of contesting China’s territorial claims in the region with air and naval freedom of navigation operations. Although occupied by China, Woody Island is also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.
In late October 2015 China’s military press disclosed that PLA Navy Air Force J-11BH fighters had deployed to Woody Island. (Chinese internet)
However, the deployments of the HQ-9 systems and the strike fighters can also be seen as a PLA effort to ‘regularise’ its force deployments to its South China Sea island bases. In an 18 February interview in Manila, US Pacific Fleet commander Admiral Scott Swift disclosed that the latest HQ-9 deployment was the third such deployment to Woody Island by the PLA.
Though infrequent, it is likely that China h