Japan sends fighter jets close to Chinese military aircraft

 

Japan sends fighter jets close to Chinese military aircraft

He urged China not to come close to its intelligence-gathering aircraft. Last week, China issued a stern warning after its fighter jets twice came close to Japanese self-defense aircraft.

Earlier this week, a Chinese military aircraft flew twice within unusually close range of a Japanese Air Self-Defense Force plane, Japan's defence ministry said. Both incidents occurred in the East China Sea. AP news.

The ministry said the first incident occurred on Wednesday morning, when a Chinese JH-7 fighter jet repeatedly approached the Japanese YS-11 intelligence-gathering aircraft. This situation lasted for about 15 minutes.

According to the ministry, at one point, the Chinese aircraft came within about 30 meters of the Japanese aircraft horizontally. They said the Japanese aircraft was conducting surveillance and observation activities at the time.

According to the ministry, the second near-miss took place on Thursday, when a Chinese JH-7 aircraft repeatedly flew past a Japanese YS-11 aircraft for about 10 minutes. At one point, its horizontal distance drops to about 60 meters.

The ministry said Japan expressed serious concern to China and strongly urged it to ensure that such activities do not recur.

Japan began deploying its fleet of V-22 Osprey fighter jets to a new permanent base in southwestern Japan on Wednesday, in the latest move to bolster its defenses as regional tensions rise.

Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force said the first of a fleet of 17 Ospreys arrived at its new home base at Camp Saga on Wednesday, with the rest arriving in mid-August.

The move is part of Japan's rapid military build-up, especially in the southwest, which will act as a deterrent to China's increasingly aggressive maritime activities in the area.