China sends 32 military aircraft, 8 naval ships around Taiwan
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) tracked 32 Chinese military aircraft and eight naval vessels around the country between
The defense ministry said that 32 People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) military aircraft and eight People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) vessels were detected. Of the detected aircraft, 16 crossed the median line or entered the north, southwest, and southeast sectors of Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).
The aircraft tracked in the ADIZ included two Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets, four Chengdu J-10 fighter jets, four Shenyang J-16 fighter jets, two BZK-005 Reconnaissance (RECCE) drones, one Shaanxi Y-9 communication countermeasure aircraft (Y-9 CC), one Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft, one Shaanxi Y-8 electronic intelligence spotter plane, and one Harbin Z-9 ASW aircraft.
The two SU-30 fighter jets crossed the median line and flew into the northern sector of the ADIZ. Some of the J-10 and J-16 fighters crossed over the middle section of the median line, while the rest of the J-16s crossed the southern end of the line and flew into the southwestern ADIZ and the rest of the J-10s flew the far southwest corner of the ADIZ.
The BZK-005 drones breached the southern part of the median line and flew into the southwestern ADIZ. One of the drones took a longer flight path from the southwestern ADIZ to the southeastern ADIZ, before returning to the Taiwan Strait.
The Y-9 CC and Y-8 ASW flew in the southwest sector of the ADIZ. The Y-8 ELINT flew in the far southwest corner of the ADIZ to the northeast of the Dongsha Islands.
The Z-9 ASW helicopter was detected in the southeast section of the ADIZ.
The MND said it monitored the situation with its intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance system and, in response, scrambled combat patrol aircraft, dispatched naval vessels, and deployed land-based air defense missile systems.
Since September 2020, Beijing has increasingly employed the use of “gray zone tactics” in the form of deployments of military aircraft and naval vessels over the median line and inside Taiwan’s ADIZ. According to CSIS, gray zone tactics are “an effort or series of efforts beyond steady-state deterrence and assurance that attempts to achieve one’s security objectives without resorting to direct and sizable use of force.”
