Chinese Military Naval Station in Cambodia Imaged by BlackSky

A ten-image collection showing the rapid pace of development of a large Chinese military naval station from August 2021 until July 2023 captured over Ream, Cambodia has been released by BlackSky. The high-resolution, electro-optical images are part of a collection of more than 520 images captured from October 2019 until the now and contains time-diverse imagery taken as early as 8 a.m., and as late as 7:58 p.m., Indochina Time.

“The speed of development at the Ream base makes it difficult to deny the intentional velocity behind China’s overseas basing initiatives.”

Craig Singleton, The Foundation for Defense of Democracies

In this graphical sequence, the images from December 22, 2022 and June 27, 2023 were augmented with elements from other BlackSky imagery at the southwest and northwest corners, respectively, to provide a complete picture and preserve the clarity of the visual.

“The speed of development at the Ream base makes it difficult to deny the intentional velocity behind China’s overseas basing initiatives,” said Craig Singleton, China Program deputy director and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “Cambodia’s receptivity to hosting China’s second overseas naval port increases Beijing’s strategic ability to project military power into the Indian Ocean.”

“There is a near-exact similarity between an angled deep-water pier located on the western shore of the Ream base and another military pier at the People’s Liberation Army Support Base in Djibouti. Both main piers are 363 meters long and large enough to support any ship in China’s naval arsenal, including the new 300-meter-long Type 003 Fujian aircraft carrier,” Singleton said.

Chinese Military Station Includes Artificial Peninsula

Third-party analysts have also observed the development of a thirty-eight thousand square meter artificial peninsula on the southern shore of the base and many architecturally distinct Cambodian and Chinese military buildings, including an alleged headquarters facility, barracks and fuel storage areas.

BlackSky’s high-resolution constellation can capture imagery on an hourly basis up to 15 times per day. This unique ability to gather images from dawn until dusk is possible because BlackSky’s constellation flies predominantly in inclined orbits, horizontally oriented around the equator. Traditional satellite imagery providers are limited to capturing images between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. because they fly in sun synchronous polar orbits.

BlackSky delivers thousands of images and analytics every month to organizations worldwide, delivering transparency and insights into border crossings, nuclear and port facilities, and other economically critical infrastructure at scale.

(Source: BlackSky news release. Images provided)