South China Sea: Is Taiwan building anti-aircraft gun towers on Taiping Island? - TomoNews

TAIPING ISLAND, SOUTH CHINA SEA — Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense would like to keep its military facilities in the South China Sea secret, and is asking Google to blur satellite images of the area on its Earth and Map services. China Post reports that new military construction was recently revealed on Taiwanese-controlled Taiping, the largest naturally occurring feature in the much-disputed Spratly Islands. Eagle-eyed observers spotted four three-pronged concrete structures arranged in a semicircle near the northwest shoreline. Defense officials aren’t disclosing what they are, but experts speculate that they could be anti-aircraft towers. Taiping, also known as Itu Aba, already has a 1,195-meter airstrip that’s long enough to accommodate F-16 fighter jets, C-130 Hercules cargo planes, and P-3C patrol crafts, according to the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative. With these aircraft, surveillance patrols have an operational radius of up to 2,500 kilometers. A pier completed earlier this year on Taiping has a 210-meter berth, capable of docking 10,000-tonne frigates, reports the Taipei Times. Taiping has other existing installations, including a command post, radar, and lighthouse. It is classified as a rock and not an island under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, a ruling which Taiwan strongly rejects. ----------------------------------------­--------------------- Welcome to TomoNews, where we animate the most entertaining news on the internets. Come here for an animated look at viral headlines, US news, celebrity gossip, salacious scandals, dumb criminals and much more! Subscribe now for daily news animations that will knock your socks off. Visit our official website for all the latest, uncensored videos: http://us.tomonews.com Check out our Android app: http://bit.ly/1rddhCj Check out our iOS app: http://bit.ly/1gO3z1f Get top stories delivered to your inbox everyday: http://bit.ly/tomo-newsletter See a story that should be animated? Tell us about it! Suggest a story here: http://bit.ly/suggest-tomonews Stay connected with us here: Facebook http://www.facebook.com/TomoNewsUS Twitter @tomonewsus http://www.twitter.com/TomoNewsUS Google+ http://plus.google.com/+TomoNewsUS/ Instagram @tomonewsus http://instagram.com/tomonewsus -~-~~-~~~-~~-~- Please watch: "Crying dog breaks the internet’s heart — but this sad dog story has a happy ending" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4prKTN9bYQc -~-~~-~~~-~~-~-