TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) tracked 11 Chinese military aircraft and six naval vessels around the country between 6 a.m. Monday (Oct. 30) and 6 a.m. Tuesday (Oct. 31).
The defense ministry said that 11 People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) military aircraft and six People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) vessels were detected. It added that four of the aircraft crossed the median line or entered the southwest sector of Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).
The aircraft tracked in the ADIZ included two Chengdu J-10 fighter jets, one BZK-005 Reconnaissance (RECCE) drone, and one Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine warfare (Y-8 ASW) aircraft. The BZK-005 drone crossed the southwestern end of the median line and entered the southwest sector of the ADIZ.
The Y-8 ASW aircraft and the J-10 fighter jets flew into the southwest 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."
Flight paths of PLAAF aircraft in southwest ADIZ from Monday to Tuesday. (MND image)
