Asia-Pacific
Japan scrambles fighters two days in a row as Chinese drones fly between Yonaguni and Taiwan
Japan’s Joint Staff recorded four drone flights on November 11 and 12 through the corridor between Yonaguni and Taiwan, including a Chinese BZK-005 reconnaissance drone. JASDF fighters took off both days.
Japan scrambled fighters on two consecutive days as Chinese drones flew over the maritime corridor between Yonaguni island and Taiwan. The Joint Staff Office of Japan’s Ministry of Defense recorded four drone flights on Wednesday, November 11 and Thursday, November 12, among them a Chinese BZK-005 reconnaissance drone. On both days fighters of the Southwestern Air Defense Force of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) took off.
On the morning of Wednesday, November 11, a drone the Joint Staff assesses to be Chinese came from the East China Sea, passed between Yonaguni and Taiwan and exited into the Pacific. There it turned around and returned through the same corridor to the East China Sea. From morning to afternoon the same day, a BZK-005 reconnaissance drone of the Chinese military followed the same route into the Pacific, circled and turned, passed through the corridor again and, after circling over the East China Sea, headed toward mainland China. The Joint Staff published a map of the routes and a photograph of the BZK-005 taken by the Self-Defense Force.
On the morning of Thursday, November 12, a drone assessed to be Chinese passed from the East China Sea into the Pacific through the Yonaguni–Taiwan corridor. In the afternoon another drone, also assessed to be Chinese, made the reverse trip, from the Pacific to the East China Sea. The Joint Staff describes both as “presumed Chinese drones,” without giving a type. Fighters of the Southwestern Air Defense Force took off again to monitor them.
A record month for scrambles
The flights followed another fighter scramble on Tuesday, November 10, when a Chinese Y-9 intelligence-gathering aircraft flew in the afternoon from mainland China over the East China Sea. It made a round trip from south of the Danjo Islands, in Nagasaki Prefecture, to northwest of Okinawa and returned toward China. In early November Japan had also scrambled fighters for a Chinese WZ-7 drone that passed twice through the Miyako Strait.
The Joint Staff’s monthly figures show that October was so far the month with the most fighter scrambles of the fiscal year. Scrambles to intercept reached 135, of which 94 concerned Chinese aircraft and 73 were carried out by the Southwestern Air Defense Force. From April to the end of October there have been 577 scrambles, 379 for Chinese and 192 for Russian aircraft. Yonaguni, Japan’s westernmost inhabited island, lies just over 100 kilometres from Taiwan and was one of the islands of the Keen Sword 27 exercise for the defence of the southwestern islands.
