Latest satellite image released on Thursday showed progress in construction being done by China on the disputed Spratlys islands. The image indicate that the infrastructure being built could handle military jets.

It showed a concrete runway which could have a total length of 10,000 feet or 3,000 meters and an apron to taxi and park aircraft, reports the New York Times. The length is within the standards of mainland China runways for its People's Liberation Army Air Force, which are between 2,700 and 4,000 meters, reports BBC.

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Beside the air facilities, the image also show dredging in the southern part of the reef meant to improve its port facilities.

Besides the construction on Fiery Cross Reef, more satellite images show construction of a second airport on Subi Reef. The reef is only 25 kilometers from an island with Filipino civilians. The Subi Reef gateway and the one being built on Fiery Cross, apparently seek to link three artificial reefs that are all part of the Spratlys, according to Jane's.

Military experts, such as Professor Peter Dutton, said that the construction is a major strategic event designed to provide China air control, which in turn, would allow the Asian giant to also have sea control. Dutton, who teaches strategic studies at Rhode Island-based Naval War College, said the airport is a "game changer" as the United States and China compete for greater control of the South China Sea.

The professor warned that later, China could possibly put in place radar and missiles in the disputed islands to bully smaller Asian nations such as Vietnam and the Philippines which also claim to own the Spratlys.

The satellite image, released on Thursday by Jane's Defense Weekly, confirms previous speculations that Beijing plans to build infrastructure in the Spratlys that would allow China to land planes on the reef.

What China is doing in the Spratlys is part of the country's aggressive moves to convert the reefs into larger islands capable of provide space for military hardware, manpower and even R&R for its employees, the report said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Kutcher, in his recent trip to Japan, described China's expansion activities in the South China Sea as worsening the tension between the United States and China.

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