The Japanese military reported on Tuesday that a Chinese aircraft carrier, which had been deployed near the island of Taiwan for exercises, has headed back to the South China Sea.
The Defense Ministry of Japan provided an update on the movement of CNS Liaoning in the Philippine Sea southeast of Taiwan and northeast of the Philippines.
Japan has been reporting movements of foreign warships within or near its exclusive economic zone, an area that extends 200 nautical miles (230 miles) beyond its territorial waters. The Liaoning was underway 304 miles south of the nearest Japanese island.
The deployment of the Liaoning was part of Joint Sword-2024B, a large-scale Chinese military exercise held in waters and airspace around Taiwan on Monday, where the aircraft carrier took part in simulated strikes on sea and land targets off the east coast of the island.
According to the report by the Japanese military, the Liaoning on Tuesday sailed toward the South China Sea, which is located to the west of the Philippine Sea, with at least two warship escorts, Type 055 destroyer CNS Anshan and Type 052D destroyer CNS Urumqi.
From Monday to Tuesday 140 takeoffs and landings by fighter jets and helicopters took place from the Chinese carrier.
A Chinese military observer noted that photos taken by the Japanese military indicated the Anshan was conducting a refueling operation with an airborne Z-18 carrier-based helicopter, the first time such a scene has been photographed and published.
055型 鞍山のヘリ甲板、Z-18に対して空中給油をしている。このような様子が撮影されて公表資料に出てくるのは初めてではないか。Z-18の種類は明確に判別できないが、早期警戒型のZ-18Jが近いように見える。近くでZ-9が飛行している点も興味深い、陰影から見ればドアを解放して空中待機している状態だ pic.twitter.com/gueQuWUSQF
— KAROTASU (@type36512) October 15, 2024
The reason for the helicopter not returning to the Liaoning for refueling as would usually be the case remains unknown. The observer suggested that refueling with the destroyer while airborne might extend the helicopter’s deployment on the outer fringe of the carrier strike group.
This was the second time the Liaoning, which is based in East China, had deployed to the Philippine Sea in a month. It was underway in an area east of the Philippines and west of Guam from September 17 to October 1.
The Liaoning then left the area and transited off the southeast coast of the Philippines, heading toward the South China Sea. It was pier-side at a naval base on China’s southern island of Hainan with CNS Shandong, the country’s second operational aircraft carrier.
The Chinese Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that the country’s navy recently organized for the Liaoning to conduct training in the South China Sea aimed at enhancing its operational capabilities.
China has launched three aircraft carriers, of which the third and most advanced, CNS Fujian, remained pier-side at Shanghai’s Jiangnan Shipyard as of October 9, according to satellite imagery. The yet-to-be-commissioned warship conducted sea trials last month.
It was not immediately clear whether the Liaoning would return to Hainan or head back to its home port at Qingdao, a city in China’s eastern province of Shandong. If the latter occurs, the aircraft carrier might pass through the Taiwan Strait.
The waterway lies between mainland China and Taiwan, and the Chinese government has long claimed the 110-mile-wide strait is under its jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, a group of four Chinese warships transited the Miyako Strait on Tuesday heading into the East China Sea from the Philippine Sea. It had been patrolling the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean with the Russian navy.
The group is composed of Type 055 destroyer CNS Wuxi, Type 052D destroyer CNS Xining, Type 054A frigate CNS Linyi, and Type 903A replenishment ship CNS Taihu.
Another group of Chinese warships, including Type 052D destroyer CNS Shaoxing and Type 054A frigate CNS Xuzhou, circumnavigated the Sakishima Islands from October 9 to Tuesday. The islands are located at the southernmost end of the Japanese Archipelago.
The warships sailed from the East China Sea to the Philippine Sea via the “Yonaguni Gap,” a less than 70-mile-wide waterway that separates Japan’s westernmost island of Yonaguni and Taiwan. They returned to the East China Sea after a Miyako Strait transit.
A Chinese Type 815A spy ship, CNS Tianlangxing, passed through the Osumi Strait on Tuesday as it headed into the East China Sea from the Philippine Sea, completing a circumnavigation of the four main Japanese islands.
The waterway lies between the Osumi Islands and the Osumi Peninsula on the Japanese main island of Kyushu.
The spy ship entered the Sea of Japan via the Tsushima Strait, which separates the Korean Peninsula and Kyushu, on September 7-8. It departed from the waters on September 22-23 via the La Perouse Strait, which is located north of Japan, and sailed toward the Sea of Okhotsk.
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