Vietnam has deployed its truck-mounted "EXTRA" guided rockets that can obliterate nearby Chinese military bases to features it holds on the disputed Spratly Islands .

EXTRA, which stands for "Extended Range Artillery," is made by Israel Military Industries Ltd (IMI). A large missile, EXTRA can deliver its 120 kg fragmentation warhead downrange to 150 kilometers with a circular error probability (CEP) of just 10 meters.

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This accuracy is more than suitable for bombarding land targets such as aircraft hangars or surface-to-air missile batteries the likes of which are deployed by China on Mischief Reef, Woody Island and Fiery Cross Reef.

Vietnam occupies or controls six islands, seventeen reefs and three banks. As can be expected, it didn't specify on which features these missiles are located. 

Vietnam already has batteries of this rocket with the coastal artillery units of the People's Army of Vietnam but these weapons defend the Vietnamese mainland. The positioning of EXTRA mobile batteries on Vietnamese controlled features on the Spratlys seems to be the first time this has occurred.

Media reports from Hanoi revealed the EXTRA mobile launchers are now defending five Vietnamese bases in the Spratlys. The unconfirmed reports also said the launchers will become fully operational within this month. Hanoi, however, asserts reports of mobile launchers being deployed to its Spratlys' islands are inaccurate.

IMI described its EXTRA as a precise, cost-effective, tactical-range artillery rocket. It said the weapon's standard vehicle is the Lynx Advanced Artillery Rockets & Autonomous Launching System, a truck-mounted missile launcher system operational since 1983.

Besides EXTRA, Lynx can also fire other artillery rockets and tactical missiles such as the Russian BM-21 Grad, a truck-mounted 122 mm multiple rocket launcher; IMI's LAR-160, a light artillery rocket and the Delilah-GL cruise missile also made by IMI with a range of 250 km.

There are media reports IMI has also sold the Lynx and EXTRA to the Philippines for deployment to Palawan Island across from the Spratlys but no confirmation of this has been made.

China is currently building hangars hardened against bomb attacks for its military aircraft at Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reefs in the South China Sea as can be seen in new satellite photos made public by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), an American think tank based in Washington D.C.

These reefs are part of the Spratly Islands China continues to illegally occupy in violation of a ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) on July 12 that concluded China has no legal basis to claim historic rights within its unfounded "nine-dash line" in the South China Sea. China seized these reefs from the Philippines.

The photos from CSIS show the construction of what seems to be hardened aircraft hangars at the three reefs. An analysis by CSIS says the hangars on all three islets have room for "any fighter-jet in the People's Liberation Army Air Force."

The photos also show a larger type of hangar on the islets that can accommodate either the Xian H-6 strategic bomber; the H-6U aerial tanker (a modified H-6); the Shaanxi KJ200 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft and the Shaanxi Y-8 medium-range transport.

China claims the hangars are for civilian aircraft use but CSIS says its satellite photos strongly suggest otherwise. CSIS said the smallest hangars are 60 to 70 feet wide, more than enough to accommodate China's largest jet fighters. All the hangars show signs of structural strengthening that might make them harder to destroy.

TagsVietnam, Extra, Extended Range Artillery, spratly islands, Israel Military Industries