October 31, 2018
New infrastructure upgrades were completed at Lhasa-Gonggar earlier this year, satellite imagery from Planet Labs shows. Workers at the civil-military airfield widened a road and built an additional parking apron near the base of the mountain. Earlier this month, India’s Hindustan Times reported that China had built an underground facility to house fighter aircraft at…
February 10, 2018
By Bellingcat Investigation Team
This article originally appeared on Offiziere.ch Indian Air Force (IAF) rotations of SU-30MKI Flanker continued in 2017/2018 at the Bagdogra Airbase, likely for an unannounced air exercise. Previous commercial imagery acquired in January 2016 also showed a squadron level deployment of the IAF’s advanced fighter. Up to eleven Flanker were observed and nine were still visible by…
January 8, 2018
By Bellingcat Investigation Team
Due to ongoing tensions with China, the Indian Air Force has deployed a flight of at least four Su-30MKI Flanker multi-role fighter to Hasimara, the nearest Indian airbase to the recent Doklam standoff. Commercial imagery first captured the aircraft in October but it’s possible they may have arrived earlier. Imagery in August 2017 shows that workers covered the alert…
November 28, 2017
By Bellingcat Investigation Team
This article appeared on Offiziere.ch (27 November 2017) Sentinel 2 imagery captured on 11 November 2017 shows continued progress on a new runway under construction at Shigatse. Initial clearing and leveling activity began in August 2017 for the now 3,000 meter long runway, (visible to the west in the imagery above). The level of new infrastructure…
August 23, 2017
A couple weeks back, we jumped over the border and looked at India’s Hasimara. This week we go back and touch on China’s Shigatse, a civil-military airfield less than 100 miles west of Lhasa. Commercial imagery acquired during July and August has shown up to eight PLAAF J-10 multi-role fighters parked on the apron. They…
August 8, 2017
Last week we looked at the Gonggar civil-military airfield, one of China’s closest to the Doka La standoff. Today, we look at India’s Hasimara, an airbase in West Bengal less than 50 miles southeast of the crisis. Commercial imagery acquired in July has shown up to eight Indian Air Force MIG-27ML/UPG on the parking apron…
August 4, 2017
As the standoff between China and India continues at Doka La, we’ve been monitoring regional airbases on both sides of the border. Commercial imagery acquired in July of Gonggar continues to show the ongoing deployment of the PLAAF’s Shenyang J-11 fighters, a modified and locally produced version of the Russian Su-27SK. It’s possible the fighters may be an…
August 4, 2017
By Bellingcat Investigation Team
In July 2015, Lawrence Alexander published a report uncovering a number of ostensibly local, Ukrainian news sites that were actually operated out of the so-called “Troll Factory” of St. Petersburg, at 55 Savushkina Street. Lawrence found the connection between these sites by locating a shared Google Analytics ID, which showed that the sites were managed…
December 30, 2015
While India and Bangladesh settled their land border issues, China and India still maintain their competing claims. Recent satellite imagery may suggest that our state actors are playing an increasingly aggressive game. Located less than 80 miles from the Aksai Chin disputed border area, the Hotan civil-military airport has seen larger deployments in the past…
June 8, 2015
The latest space snapshots acquired by the commercial satellite firm DigitalGlobe show eleven of the carrier-based aircraft parked on the south apron of the airbase at Vizag. It appears the aircraft arrived since previous imagery was taken in March. Two Hawk Mk 132 trainer and a new aircraft hangar (under construction) were also visible on…
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