Xi'anSatellite imagery from 5 October shows 4 KJ-3000 radar jets.
Mitchell Institute fellow J. Michael Dahm says four aircraft means the type has entered serial production.
It would expand China’s airborne surveillance and battle-management capabilities, built on the Y-20B transport with Chinese-made engines.
Analyst Andreas Rupprecht says the imagery could show low-rate production, or four prototypes parked together.
How each outlet framed it
- The War Zone
- weighs Dahm's serial-production reading against Rupprecht's caution that all four could be prototypes parked at one site
Sources: The War Zone