Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun reported on the 27th that China is rapidly increasing the operation of unmanned aerial vehicles approaching Japan’s airspace in and around the East China Sea.
According to the newspaper, since 2013, a total of 15 emergency scrambles have been carried out by the Air Self-Defense Force due to China’s operation of unmanned aerial vehicles. Twelve of the 15 were conducted after August 2021.
Specifically, the first emergency launch of the Air Self-Defense Force by a Chinese drone was carried out in September 2013. After being implemented in May 2017 and April 2018, respectively, it was not conducted in 2019-2020.
This atmosphere changed in the summer of 2021, when China strengthened military exercises for a Taiwan emergency. In August 2021 and July and August 2022, the TB001, an attack drone, passed through the Miyako Strait between Miyakojima, Okinawa Prefecture, and the main island of Okinawa in the East China Sea.
In January of this year, it was also confirmed for the first time that the reconnaissance aircraft WZ7, which can fly at high altitude for a long time, entered the Pacific Ocean.
The Air Self-Defense Force’s emergency launch is conducted after analyzing the flight path and when there is a concern about airspace invasion.
The Japanese government saw this as a move with China’s Taiwan emergency in mind, and began strengthening countermeasures, such as easing standards for the use of weapons in case of airspace invasion.
In particular, a Defense Ministry official told the newspaper that the flight of Chinese drones over the East China Sea “has been confirmed every day in recent years.”
The Ministry of Defense of Japan announced this month that the aircraft that had invaded its airspace on the past three occasions was also speculated to be used for reconnaissance by China. In preparation for the case of balloons and unmanned aerial vehicles invading airspace, the Self-Defense Forces’ standards for weapon use were relaxed and allowed to be shot down even if it did not fall under self-defense.
However, if the drone stays for a long time in the Senkaku Islands (Diaoyu Islands in Chinese), which is an area of territorial dispute between China and Japan, the government will have to make a difficult decision about whether to shoot it down.
Shigeki Muto, who served as the commander of the Air Self-Defense Force’s Air Force Corps, told Yomiuri, “China is accelerating the operation of unmanned aerial vehicles for actual combat. He pointed out that there is also a concern that the invasion of the territorial waters by ships will continue, aiming for effective control of the Senkaku Islands, and that the invasion of the territorial space by unmanned aerial vehicles will become a condition.”
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.