Recent satellite imagery of Mumbai Reef inward the Paracel Islands shows that Red People's Republic of China has installed a novel platform at the largely untouched South Red People's Republic of China Sea feature, which is likewise claimed past times Taiwan in addition to Vietnam. The small-scale novel construction appears to survive anchored on the due north border of the reef in addition to is topped past times a radome in addition to solar panels. The evolution is interesting given Mumbai Reef’s strategic location, in addition to the possibility that the structure’s rapid deployment could survive repeated inward other parts of the South Red People's Republic of China Sea.
Bombay Reef is located at the southeastern border of the Paracel Islands and, similar the balance of the chain, has been administered past times Red People's Republic of China since 1974. But until this summer, the exclusively artificial construction on the mostly-submerged reef was a decades-old lighthouse on its western side. The closest Chinese outposts are Lincoln Island 39 nautical miles to the northeast, Woody Island 47 nautical miles to the north, Duncan Island fifty nautical miles to the northwest, in addition to Triton Island 75 nautical miles to the west.
The novel platform origin appeared at the reef inward satellite imagery dated July 7, 2018; it was non acquaint inward before shots from April. It measures closed to xc feet (27 meters) long in addition to xl feet (12 meters) broad in addition to is raised some distance to a higher house the water. The construction is topped past times a radome standard roughly twenty feet (6 meters) inward diameter in addition to an array of solar panels roofing to a greater extent than than 1300 foursquare feet (124 meters). The superstructure hides whatever other facilities or equipment that the platform may contain.
It is hard to definitively position the structure’s role from imagery, but some explanations seem to a greater extent than in all probability than others. One non-military selection could survive that it serves equally a navigational help for ships transiting nigh the Paracels. But the platform appears to survive unusually large in addition to sophisticated for a business office that could in all probability survive served past times a smaller buoy or serial of buoys. That would likewise seem redundant, given that Mumbai Reef already has a lighthouse to serve equally a navigational aid.
The to a greater extent than in all probability possibilities, given Mumbai Reef’s strategic location, are armed services inward nature. The reef is guide side past times side to the major transportation lanes that run betwixt the Paracels in addition to the Spratly Islands to the south, making it an attractive place for a sensor array to extend Chinese radar or signals tidings collection over that of import ocean lane. The radome is relatively small, particularly compared to large sensor arrays built on nearby Woody Island or on China’s major bases inward the Spratly Islands, in addition to hence its capabilities are likewise in all probability modest. Power furnish is presumably a limiting factor. Mumbai Reef does non host a base of operations or whatever ability generation facilities, in addition to hence the platform must survive self-sufficient. The solar panels lining its occur may survive its exclusively source of electricity, or they could augment a generator inward the facilities nether the superstructure.
With China’s rapid buildup of capabilities inward the Paracels in addition to Spratlys, the exclusively in all probability gaps inward its domain awareness over the South Red People's Republic of China Sea are inward the northeast about Scarborough Shoal and, to a lesser extent, the waters betwixt the Spratlys in addition to Paracels. Any extension of those capabilities to the due south in addition to due east from Mumbai Reef would convey Red People's Republic of China closer to its destination of monitoring in addition to projecting ability across the entire waterway.
Additionally, the rapid deployment of the platform in addition to its little environmental footprint stands inward stark contrast to the intensive procedure of dredging in addition to reclamation that marked China’s expansion of its Spratly outposts inward recent years. If the construction does trouble solid a sensor array, it would exhibit that Beijing is capable of rapidly establishing a permanent facility to extend its domain awareness about a disputed characteristic without the environmental devastation in addition to reputational impairment that accompanied the before isle edifice campaign. This sort of quick, low-impact construction could survive replicated inward other areas similar Scarborough Shoal, command of which Red People's Republic of China seized from the Philippines inward 2012. The Philippines in addition to the U.S.A. pick out been worried that Red People's Republic of China would build a permanent outpost at Scarborough, in addition to the U.S.A. authorities reportedly deterred such a invention inward early on 2016. But compared to dredging in addition to reclamation, the installation of a small-scale platform would survive harder to forestall at the fourth dimension in addition to to a greater extent than hard to rally international condemnation against later on the fact.
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