A US military reconnaissance plane was reported flying close to the nation’s southern airspace yesterday morning, the ninth time US military aircraft have been observed operating near Taiwan this month.
A US RC-135U Combat Sent was operating in the South China Sea, according to a flight chart posted on Twitter yesterday by Aircraft Spots, a military tracker.
The Ministry of National Defense did not directly confirm the sighting, except to say that the nation’s armed forces closely monitor the surrounding waters and airspace.
Aircraft Spots charts and government records show that the latest US operation was the ninth since the beginning of this month that a US warplane had been operating near the nation’s airspace.
Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), an analyst at the government-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that the RC-135U’s flight patch from close to the Bashi Channel to the South China Sea could have been to monitor unusual activity in the area by China’s People’s Liberation Army.
The US plane had its transponder switched on, which exposed the plane to detection by various online aircraft tracking sites, Su added.
The move was likely deliberate and intended not only to demonstrate the US military’s muscle in the South China Sea, but also as a form of public diplomacy, Su said.
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