Military jets and vehicles spotted at new China-Laos base

Eight light attack jets and more than two dozen military vehicles have arrived at a new joint training facility in Laos, just one day after Beijing and Vientiane announced its creation.

Satellite photographs taken on 30 September by commercial provider Vantor show the aircraft and support vehicles lined up on a runway that is still under construction at Ban Keun, just outside the Lao capital of Vientiane. The Chinese defence ministry had announced the establishment of the joint facility only 24 hours earlier, on 29 September. The images were first reviewed and reported by Reuters.

Security analysts believe the sudden deployment could signal the development of China’s first fully fledged military base in Southeast Asia, expanding its footprint beyond its current outposts in Djibouti and Cambodia.

The aircraft captured in the images appear to be Hongdu JL-8 light attack jets, also known as the K-8. The two-seater jet is used for both flight training and light ground-attack missions. It was jointly developed by China and Pakistan and is operated by both the Chinese and Lao air forces. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Laos owns four of the planes, though Collin Koh, a security scholar at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, noted that their serviceability is "questionable".

It remains unclear whether the newly arrived aircraft belong to China or Laos, or if they were brought in specifically for the joint training programme.

The rapid construction at Ban Keun is drawing close scrutiny from regional military attaches. Analysts are watching the site for signs of permanent military infrastructure, such as air defence systems, fuel depots, ammunition storage, and surveillance equipment.

Alexander Neill, an analyst at Hawaii’s Pacific Forum think-tank, said the airfield seems engineered to allow for future runway extensions. This could eventually allow China to deploy larger aircraft to the site, including signals intelligence and electronic-surveillance planes, significantly extending its military reach into Southeast Asia.

Rachel Vandenbrink, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the choice of site was likely a "target of opportunity" rather than a response to an urgent operational need. Laos offers a valuable land-based foothold in Southeast Asia, reinforced by its shared border and direct rail links with China.

Adding a layer of historical irony, the site of the new Chinese-backed facility is a former covert US airfield used during the Vietnam War. In the 1970s, Ban Keun was known as "Lima Site 44", an airfield used by Air America, a covert airline owned by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). According to records from the Library of Congress, the CIA used the site to ferry supplies and transport US-backed fighters from the Hmong ethnic minority.

Neither the Chinese defence ministry nor the Lao foreign ministry responded to requests for comment on the satellite imagery.