Satellite images show, China substantially expanded its airfields along LAC

New Delhi: China has substantially expanded its airfields along the contested border with India to strengthen its air power. According to new satellite images, it has developed a range of offensive capabilities since a violent military standoff in 2020.

According to satellite images shared with The Independent by Planet Labs PBC, a San Francisco-based Earth imaging company, Beijing has expanded airfields, helipads, railway facilities, missile bases, roads and bridges along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to counter India's comparative advantages in some areas,.

As per an analysis of the same images by Indian daily newspaper Hindustan Times, the images of airfields at Hotan, Ngari Gunsa and Lhasa in southwest China reveal that China has expanded facilities by building new runways, fortified shelters to protect combat jets, and through the construction of new operations buildings. 

These three Chinese airfields are strategically positioned across India's northern region, stretching from west to east.

The two nuclear-powered South Asian nations, which have a decades-old history of rival border claims, have been working to de-escalate the latest tensions on their loosely demarcated de facto border, known as the LAC, for three years. 

The Hotan airfield in southwestern Xinjiang, located about 400km from Leh in India, constructed a new runway, new aircraft and military operations support buildings along with a new apron, according to a satellite image from May 2023, provided by Planet Labs.

Recent images of the airfield have shown unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operating from the airfield.

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