The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is deploying more anti-ship missiles at its Yulin Naval Base on Hainan Island in the South China Sea, the present site of its largest nuclear submarine base and the future site for a major base for its new aircraft carriers.
High-resolution imagery from the Eros B satellite owned and operated by ImageSat International (ISI), an Israeli company, reveal the deployment of multiple anti-ship missile (AShM) launchers on the western side of the naval base. Other images show other sites being prepared to receive more AShM launchers or surface-to-air missile (SAM) launchers.
The deployment of the AShM launchers seems to have taken place over the past two months, said ISI imagery analyst Amit Gur.
"The direction in which the launchers are facing leads us to believe these are shore-to-ship missiles," said Gur.
He noted that Eros B imagery from March 15 shows an empty plateau, but by May 8 showed clear images of newly paved infrastructure and multiple AShM launch sites.
"They must have concluded renovation work, as the systems are clearly visible," said Gur. "We just don't know if they are new systems, or a (redeployment) of the ones that were stored during the renovation."
ISI finds the work on Yulin's eastern side more intriguing.
"We're seeing the building of infrastructure that wasn't there before and what looks like preparations for shore-to-ship missiles, just like on the western side," said Gil Or, company spokesman.
One of the greatest disadvantages of the PLAN is that it hasn't a single overseas base in Asia and within the First Island Chain.
This restriction also means the U.S. Navy won't have a difficult time finding and attacking the few major naval bases operated by PLAN. The CNS Liaoning (CV-16), PLAN's only operational aircraft carrier, is home ported to Qingdao along the Yellow Sea, which is also the headquarters for the North Sea Fleet.
Strangely, Liaoning is the flagship of the South Sea Fleet with headquarters at Yulin. Qingdao is some 2,500 km from Hainan.
Chinese military pundits are now openly speculating on the need for PLAN to build more home ports for its two carriers, and the expanding PLAN Surface Fleet. But because of the shallowness of the southern parts of the South China Sea, these bases will have to be located close to Hainan Island, which is also the home base for PLAN's ballistic missile submarines.