China has been very aggressive in it’s posturing in recent past.
From threatening its neighbors, to rejecting the decision of Hague tribunal on South China
Sea dispute, its behavior has been outright provocative.
China has reclaimed thousands of acres of land in disputed islands and is building military
infrastructure on them.
China’s projects have moved at a brisk pace, with reports of new military installations
appearing every few weeks.
Earlier this month, a state-run Chinese paper said that Beijing had installed 155 mm rocket
launchers on Fiery Cross reef in the Spratlys Island, reportedly to deter combat divers
from Vietnam.
China has also deployed anti-aircraft missiles in Woody Island.
Not only that, China is now starting to intercept unarmed U.S planes in international airspace.
In this video, Defense Updates looks at two such incidents in the first 2 points, and
then analyzes why US should deploy F35 and F 22 Raptor in the vicinity of South China Sea.
The WC-135 Constant Phoenix aircraft is designed to detect radioactive debris and collect other
atmospheric and weather-related data.
One has been deployed in the Asia-Pacific in anticipation of North Korean nuclear test.
Two Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) Su-30 fighters intercepted the
unarmed aircraft over the East China Sea.
The Chinese jets came within 150 feet of the US plane, with one of the Su-30s flying inverted,
or upside down, directly above the American plane.
The incident reportedly took place in international airspace.
The US P-3 Orion surveillance plane was 150 miles (240 km) southeast of Hong Kong in international
airspace when the Chinese aircraft carried out an unsafe intercept.
The Pentagon said that two Chinese aircraft conducted an unprofessional intercept of the
P 3 Orion over the South China Sea, marking the second time in about a week that the U.S
has complained about unsafe Chinese operations in the region.
As per reports, one of the Chinese J-10 fighter jets flew about 200 yards in front of the
US P-3 aircraft and about 100 feet above it, doing slow turns.
The second Chinese fighter remained about 750 yards off the P-3's right wing.
The two interceptions have been made against unarmed
U.S aircrafts in international airspace.
Deploying F35 & F 22 will provide the following strategic paybacks:
1. Clearly signal China that U.S intent of not backing down, and is ready to raise the bar.
F35 and F 22 have state of art technologies, and bringing them into table will show the
resolve of U.S in dealing with China.
2. China’s response to the deployment of F35 & F22 will provide insight to U.S about how
far Beijing is willing to take these provocative behaviors further.
Intercepting these frontline fighter jets is a totally different ball game as compared
to intercepting an unarmed aircraft.
3. This will provide much need assurance to countries like Japan, Taiwan about US presence in the
region and its intent in taking on China.