US Ally Scrambles Jets To Intercept Chinese Bomber and Spy Plane

Japan scrambled fighter jets on Sunday as China sent a bomber and a spy plane over waters near the Japanese southwestern islands for a long-distance mission from the Chinese mainland.

The Joint Staff Office under the Defense Ministry of Japan reported the Chinese military aircraft’s movement within its air defense identification zone. The H-6 bomber and the Y-9 spy plane were spotted flying from mainland China and heading into the Miyako Strait. Newsweek has contacted the Chinese Defense Ministry for comment by email.

Japan and its security ally, the United States, as well as China and South Korea, have set up air defense identification zones around the countries in the interest of national security. The zone begins where sovereign airspace ends and is within the international airspace.

The Miyako Strait lies between the Japanese islands of Miyako and Okinawa. It is part of the so-called first island chain, a U.S. defense concept, which extends from Japan to Taiwan and the Philippines to the south, attempting to contain China in the Western Pacific Ocean.

The Japanese military did not identify the variant of the Chinese bomber. According to a Chinese military observer, the bomber was a H-6J, which the Pentagon described as a maritime strike bomber and a naval variant of the H-6K operated by the Chinese air force.

The new and larger advanced H-6J has six pylons for carrying weapons instead of four, capable of firing supersonic antiship cruise missiles. The bomber is equipped with advanced avionics and upgraded engines, the Pentagon said in a report released in October last year.

The bomber “can attack warships out to the second island chain,” the report warned. This chain, which is situated to the east of the first one, is a series of islands stretching from Japan to Guam, a U.S. territory, and New Guinea in the south.

Long-range bombers are part of the Chinese military’s anti-access/area denial capabilities. These aim to prevent the American military forces—especially the navy and its aircraft carriers—from approaching the first island chain during a potential conflict with Taiwan.

China held a large-scale military exercise around Taiwan last week, a self-ruled island that has been viewed by Beijing as part of its territory. During the exercise, Chinese warships and combat aircraft have engaged in drills focusing on blockades on key ports and areas.

The Japanese military said the two Chinese military aircraft headed toward waters in the Philippine Sea south of the country’s Sakishima Islands after transiting the Miyako Strait. They returned to the East China Sea via the same strait and flew toward mainland China.

It was not the first time the Chinese sent the same types of bombers and spy planes over waters near the southwestern islands of Japan, where they had conducted a similar mission on March 12.

Japan’s Joint Staff Office on Thursday reported that, from April 1 to September 30, its air force scrambled fighter jets 358 times in response to foreign military aircraft approaching the country, showing a decrease from the same period last year, which recorded 424 times.

Among the Japanese scrambles, 241 of them were against the Chinese military aircraft, which is fewer than last year’s 304 times. However, the number of scrambles against the Russian military aircraft was 115 times, which is an increase from last year’s 110 times.

On September 12, a pair of Russian Tu-142 maritime reconnaissance and antisubmarine warfare aircraft flew on an anticlockwise flight around Japan, Newsweek‘s map showed.