Dangerous Ground
Date Updated: Sunday April 10, 2005

Below are pictures of the Spratley Islands as well as Mischief reef .  This should give you an idea of what the contested ground looks like.

Philippines

Pagasa Island and Rancudo Airfield.

Pagasa island is below taken from a PAF aircraft.

The picture above is of Pagasa Island taken from a Philippine Air Force C-130 four years ago. It is also called "Thitu" Island in international maps.  The air base is called Rancudo Airfield - named after a PAF general who previously commanded the PAF.

It's the largest of the Spratly islands, excluding Spratly Island itself and is also the largest island currently occupied by the Philippines. The runway is approximately 1290 meters long and 100 meters wide and is constructed from cement and crushed coral.  The runway was originally developed to include arresting gear to enable it to land F-8 Crusaders but this never came to pass.  An F-8 detachment was however based on Palawan island 100 or so miles to the east.

The Philippine government has committed to improving the facilities on the island including paving the runway for use in all weathers and constructing hangars and other support facilities to base aircraft (OV-10s semi-permanently?).  Over the years, the Philippines has also constructed concrete bunkers and gun emplacements on the island.  It houses several anti-aircraft artillery (40mm Bofors) pieces as well as several field artillery pieces  (M101A1 105mm howitzers).  AFP personnel posted here receive "Loneliness" pay.

From this perspective, it's pretty impressive what the AFP has been able to do considering the meager resources it has available. 

A radar image of Pag-asa taken from a passing sattelite.

Scarborough Reef

The picture below was taken from a Philippine Navy Islander and was provided by MC-5 of the Philippine Marines.  With thanks.

Chinese structures on Mischief Reef taken from PAF reconnaissance aircraft.  It is noteworthy that all this activity started after the US left its bases in Luzon. 
Mischief Reef was a training live fire range used by both the PAF and US forces prior to the Chinese moving in and asserting their claim.

Chinese Structures in the Spratley Islands

Spratley Islands Maps