PLAAF Su-30MKK fighters over the South China Sea. (Photo : Xinhua)
China claims a small fleet of aircraft from the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) recently flew a combat air patrol over the Scarborough Shoal and the Spratly Islands as part of a combat training mission.
Scarborough Shoal, which China seized from the Philippines in 2012, is only 220 kilometers from Zambales, the nearest Philippine landmass. It is, however, 947 km away from Hainan, the nearest Chinese landmass.
The patrol is a latest in a series of provocations by China attempting to scare the Philippines after the latter won a resounding victory in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague last July 12. The court declared China's "nine-dash line" illegal and with it China's claim to own the South China Sea. It also found China had infringed on Philippine sovereignty.
Already beset by international condemnation because of its refusal to abandon its claim to the South China Sea, China has embarked on a coercive diplomacy offensive that has threatened Australia with war and is provoking Japan by sending its fishing vessels escorted by coast guard ships into the East China Sea.
India has called on China to abide by the arbitration court ruling and announced it will come to the aid of any Asian nation threatened by China. A U.S. Navy fleet led by two aircraft carriers is currently patrolling the South China Sea.
This belligerence is surprising since China has no maritime ally in Asia. It can only pray that Russia's feckless support will translate into military action when push comes to shove in the disputed Asian seas.
The PLAAF aircraft included two Sukhoi Su-30MKK all-weather, long-range strike fighters; two Xian H-6 twin engine jet bombers; an Ilyushin IL-78 "Midas" aerial tanker and an AWACS (Airborne Early Warning Control System) aircraft, probably a KJ-2000, of which only five are in service with the PLAAF.
The patrol was part of actual combat training to improve the PLAAF's response to security threats, said Senior Colonel Shen Jinke of the PLAAF.
The Su-30MKK (NATO codename, Flanker-G) were refueled twice over the sea, Shen said, indicating this aircraft might not have come from Hainan, headquarters of the South Sea Fleet of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). These fighters have a round trip range of 3,000 kilometers.
The PLAAF said the patrol completed a series of training missions, including air defense early warning maneuvers, air combat and island patrolling in a complicated electromagnetic environment. It flies regular South China Sea patrols to safeguard state sovereignty, security and maritime interests.
