The United States has been stirring up tension in the Asia-Pacific region in an attempt to create incidents in the Taiwan Strait, and its main method is to conduct so-called "freedom of navigation" in the Taiwan Strait, frequently dispatch military aircraft through the Taiwan Strait, and openly challenge China's sovereignty and security. On 8 December, the US P-8A anti-submarine aircraft once again intruded into the Taiwan Strait and flew through the Taiwan Strait from north to south. This is the third time this year that the US P-8A anti-submarine aircraft have done this, the first two times on January 25 and June 24, both from south to north.
At the same time, PLA fighters also carried out combat patrols in the Taiwan Strait on December 8, according to the report of the Taiwan military, the PLA has a total of 27 fighters and 4 ** cruising around the Taiwan Strait, of which 11 fighters crossed the so-called "middle line", including 4 J-10, 1 CH-4 UAV, 4 J-16, 1 Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, 1 BZK-005 UAV. Four of the J-16s operated in the airspace over the central part of the Taiwan Strait and crossed the "middle line" of the strait. Judging from the time and route, it seems to be very close to the US P-8A crossing operation, but the Taiwan military only provided the approximate area of the PLA's activities, and there was no specific time and route, and the flight route of the P-8A coincided greatly with the J-16's activity area, so at that time, in the air, the PLA 4 J-16 may have intercepted the US military and had an accompanying flight incident.
This gives people reason to suspect that this is the first time that the J-16 has intercepted a US military plane over the Taiwan StraitThis is not the first time that a Chinese fighter has intercepted a US military reconnaissance plane, but the relevant situation has never been made public, and many times it can only be relied on speculation; this time we have some information, and we can see the flight route map of the US plane, as well as the schematic map of the activities of the PLA fighter plane released by the Taiwan military, which makes people suspect for the first time that an interception in the Taiwan Strait has occurred.
According to reports, the US P-8A antisubmarine plane was only 13 nautical miles away from the baseline at the nearest time, and because the width of the Taiwan Strait is not wide, this means that the US P-8A antisubmarine plane is also close to 12 nautical miles of China's Taiwan Island, and it is also within the surveillance range of the Taiwan military, which is equivalent to the US P-8A antisubmarine plane being caught between the PLA and the Taiwan military, and has been in a state of being monitored. Moreover, there are J-10 fighters patrolling in the north and south of the strait, so it can be said that this P-8A is under close surveillance.
This issue also reflects the combat readiness of the PLA. In the past, foreign countries always had some doubts about the PLA's response ability, but since the beginning of this year, the situation has changed a lot, and the United States "1945" once claimed that once something happens, the J-16 will take off from the airport where it is located and fly to the airspace of the Taiwan Strait within 7 minutes, that is, it will take a very short time to launch an attack on the target. The current situation is that the US military does not believe that the PLA's reaction capability is fast enough, so the P-8A has to try it for himself and feel the reaction capability of the J-16 for himself.
Geographically speaking, the length of the Taiwan Strait from north to south is about 400 kilometers, and for aircraft, it is only more than 300 kilometers. If the P-8A had flown over, the whole journey would have taken about 20 minutes. If the time from discovering the intention of the target to crossing the target to completing the crossing, the time for our fighters to intercept them may only be more than 10 minutes, and if we consider the time it takes for the fighters to take off and reach the interception area, then it will be even shorter, and the window period may only be a few minutes. If our army reacts a little slower, it may miss this opportunity, but judging from the results, it is still quite reassuring that our army's J-16 is in place in time, otherwise there will be no phenomenon that the US side did not issue a report in time.
The current situation is: the US military P-8A broke into the Taiwan Strait, and our J-16 approached the center line of the Taiwan Strait and carried out interception operations, and there was also a J-20 as a backing up. Our army's J-20 has participated in the Taiwan Strait combat patrol, but the Taiwanese radar can not be found, there has never been any mention of J-20 news, in this kind of interception operation, J-16 is a public appearance, J-20 is a secret force, general provocative actions, J-20 will not show up, all rely on J-16 to deal with it, if it really does, then it may be J-20 to provide a fatal blow, leaving the opponent with a memory that can never be forgotten.
If we want to deal with the US reconnaissance plane, we don't need the J-20 to shoot at all, and the J-16 can deal with him. A few months ago, when our army intercepted the Australian reconnaissance plane, our army used the so-called "aluminum block" tactic, that is, our army's J-16 flew in front of the target and dropped aluminum metal foil jamming bombs, which were originally used to jam the equipment of the radar system, which caused Australia's **, which is not a ** attack, just a warning, but the appearance of aluminum metal foil made Australian pilots nervous. In the future, in dealing with the US military, should the tactic of spraying "aluminum blocks" by our fighters be more popular?This is a question worth investigating.