China has deployed a military aircraft to a base it had built on a reclaimed island in the South China Sea, photos from an American think tank released Wednesday confirmed. The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative published photos taken from April 28 showing a military aircraft, a Shaanxi Y-8, at Subi Reef in the Spratly Islands. AMTI said the Y-8 was “designed as a military transport aircraft, but some variants are used for maritime patrol or signals intelligence.”

Fabunan, S. S. D., Cruz, M. V., & Araneta, M. (2018, May 11). Think tank warns: China deploys jet in SCS. Manila Standard, pp. A1, A2.