Defence
New Satellite Imagery Shows China Has Deployed UAVs, Fighter Jets At Ngari Gunsa Airbase Close To LAC
- The Ngari Gunsa base of the PLAAF, which also serves as a civilian airport, is located in Tibet’s Ngari prefecture, not far from the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
- The base, built at an elevation of around 14,000 feet, was operationalised by the Chinese in 2010.
UAVs at Ngari Gunsa airbase (@detresfa_/Twitter)
Satellite imagery from October 2021 shows that China's People's Liberation Army Air Force or PLAAF has deployed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and fighter jets at its Ngari Gunsa airbase, located only 200 kilometres away from the Pangong Lake.
The latest satellite image, posted by open source intelligence handle @detrasfa_ on Twitter, shows that the PLAAF has deployed UAVs — CH4s, most likely — at the airbase. Two UAVs, deployed since at least August this year, are visible in the satellite image of the airbase.
Earlier this year, satellite images from February 2021 showed that China is building hardened aircraft shelters at the base.
At least 12 hardened shelters are under construction at the airbase.
According to experts, the construction of hardened aircraft shelters at the base hints that China plans to increase the presence of its air assets, including drones, at Ngari Gunsa, over the next few years, to counter India’s deployments in Ladakh.
The expansion of the base, which began sometime in early 2020, continued throughout the military standoff in eastern Ladakh.
Large-scale earth work, ongoing from April 2020, was seen in a satellite image dated 15 May, next to the 4,500-metre runway of the airbase.
Back then, reports said it could be a “second taxi-track or a secondary tarmac”.
The deployment of this detachment of fighter jets at the Ngari Gunsa airbase was first seen in December 2019, just months before China surprised India by deploying thousands of Chinese soldiers, supported by heavy equipment, along the LAC in eastern Ladakh.
During the standoff, a Chinese military insider had told the South China Morning Post that the PLAAF had deployed its J-16s at Ngari Gunsa for “regular training” but decided to retain the aircraft at the base “because of the stand-off”.
China had also deployed additional fighters in Hotan, north of Ladakh.
However, satellite images dated 14 June show China deployed “an additional 24 aircraft” at this airbase.
To improve its presence and posture along the LAC, China is also building a helicopter base in Aksai Chin, 130 kilometres away from the Galwan Valley in north eastern Ladakh, where 20 Indians and dozens of Chinese soldiers were killed in clashes on 15 June last year. The area it is coming up in is around 147 km away from Daulat Beg Oldie, which hosts a military base, and an airstrip — the highest in the world.
