Photo hints a big US Air Force Reaper drone competition was focused on one of China's fake islands in the South China Sea

• The US Air Force held a competition for its MQ-9 Reaper drones last week.
• One photo from the event shows a drone operator sitting in front of a map of Mischief Reef.
• The reef is a Chinese military outpost, and the photo hints it may have been a simulated target or focal point.

A newly released photo suggests a recent US Air Force Reaper combat drone event appears to have been focused to some degree on an artificial Chinese island in the South China Sea.

Dozens of MQ-9 Reaper drone squadrons flocked to Hurlburt Field in Florida last week for an annual competition that tests the skills of pilots and sensor operators, who engaged in brief tactical scenarios to test their combat decision-making and capabilities, the 1st Special Operations Wing said in a statement on Wednesday.

The unit said the pilots and sensor operators faced "challenges that ranged from general tactical maneuvers to specialized skills requiring precise and advanced techniques, reflecting the evolving nature of modern warfare."

The Air Force published several photos from the competition, known as Reaper Smoke 2024. One showed a drone pilot and a sensor operator assigned to the 25th Operations Support Squadron working in front of multiple screens.

One of the screens featured a map of Mischief Reef and the surrounding area in the contested Spratly Islands of the South China Sea. Mischief Reef is located just miles away from the Second Thomas Shoal, another disputed territory, and several other screens feature what appears to be a satellite image of the reef.

China has built up Mischief Reef over the years, essentially turning it into an artificial island that functions as a small Chinese military outpost . The US and its allies and partners have criticized this activity as the atoll is considered part of the Philippines' exclusive economic zone.

The Chinese Mischief Reef military outpost features an airstrip, missile systems, and jamming equipment, among other capabilities. Beijing has made similar efforts to arm nearby atolls in the area, which is hundreds of miles away from the Chinese coastline.

The South China Sea has long been a source of tension between the US and China, as well as a number of other Indo-Pacific nations. Beijing claims sovereignty over vast swaths of this strategic waterway, and Washington and its partners routinely criticize Beijing over its increasingly aggressive behavior to enforce its control, such as its recent clashes with the Philippines.

The map in the Air Force photos suggests that the reef may have been a simulated target in last week's Reaper drone exercise, though the Air Force has not explicitly stated that. A potential future clash between the US and China in the Pacific could see American forces go after the site with MQ-9s or other assets that they have stationed in the region .

The 1st Special Operations Wing did not mention Mischief Reef in its release, and neither did Air Force Special Operations Command when Business Insider reached out.

An AFSOC spokesperson did say, however, that the Air Force "conducts a wide range of training events to enhance operational readiness, such as the Reaper Smoke competition."

"This annual event brings together MQ-9 squadrons from across the service and includes mission scenarios from different locations worldwide," the spokesperson told Business Insider. "Reaper Smoke focuses on refining the skills of the Air Force MQ-9 community across diverse mission scenarios, enabling collaboration and networking among aircrews for shared lessons learned and best practices."

The Wing emphasized the intent of exercises like this in its press release.

"Air Force Special Operations Command is focused on specialized air power," said Col. Mark Jones, AFSOC concepts and capabilities development division chief, in the Wednesday release.

"The MQ-9 inside AFSOC is focused on training the fundamentals — training Airmen to be skilled and adapt to use the MQ-9 in ways we haven't used it before, for the future," he said.