Key facts
- Satellite images show eight K-8 light attack jets and over two dozen support vehicles at a new China-Laos joint training facility.
- The facility is located at Ban Keun, outside Vientiane, Laos.
- The images were taken on September 30 by commercial satellite provider Vantor.
- The facility was announced by China's defense ministry on September 29.
- Analysts suggest the site could become China's first fully fledged overseas military base in Southeast Asia.
- The site was previously used as a covert US airfield during the Vietnam War.
Light attack aircraft and military vehicles have arrived at a new China-Laos joint training facility announced last Tuesday, according to satellite images reviewed by Reuters. The images, taken on September 30 by commercial satellite provider Vantor, show what security analysts believe are eight K-8 light attack jets and more than two dozen support vehicles on a runway that is still being built.
The swift development of the new facility is being closely watched by regional military attaches and security scholars, some of whom say its construction potentially marks China's first fully fledged overseas military base in Southeast Asia. China is widely perceived to lack a strong network of overseas facilities beyond the South China Sea, port access in Ream, Cambodia, and a logistics base in Djibouti.
Rachel Vandenbrink, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the selection of Ban Keun for a facility that the People's Liberation Army could access "is likely more about a target of opportunity than filling an obvious operational need." She added that Laos has geostrategic value as an accessible foothold in mainland Southeast Asia due to its shared border with China and infrastructure links.
Singapore-based security analysts Collin Koh and Alexander Neill, as well as Vantor specialists, identified the planes as Hongdu JL-8 aircraft, also known as the K-8. This two-seater aircraft is used for training and has light attack capabilities, and is jointly developed by China and Pakistan. Laos currently possesses four such planes, though their serviceability is considered questionable by some analysts.
Diplomats and analysts are monitoring the site for signs of air defenses, ammunition and fuel storage, and surveillance facilities, which could indicate broader military functions beyond training. Neill noted that the airfield appears engineered to accommodate a runway extension for larger aircraft, potentially extending China's reach into Southeast Asia.
China is now occupying a site at Ban Keun that the US used covertly during the Vietnam War. During the 1970s, it was an airfield known as "Lima Site 44" used by Air America, an airline discreetly owned by the Central Intelligence Agency, to transport troops and supplies. Records indicate that by 1968, Ban Keun was used as a point from which Air America helicopters delivered troops to combat zones.