On December 21, a Chinese Navy J-11 fighter jet flew inside six metres of the nostril of an RC-135 Rivet Joint, a US Air Force reconnaissance aircraft with about 30 individuals on board.
In response, the RC-135 needed to take “evasive manoeuvres to avoid a collision,” INDOPACOM stated in a press release.
The RC-135 was in worldwide airspace over the South China Sea and was “lawfully conducting routine operations,” INDOPACOM stated.
Video of the incident from INDOPACOM exhibits the J-11 flying off the nostril of the RC-135. As the 2 plane draw nearer, a defence official stated it’s “unlikely” the Chinese jet might have maintained a protected visible separation from the bigger, heavier American plane, which was sustaining its course and velocity.
The RC-135 then takes evasive motion to keep away from a collision, descending away from the Chinese jet.
The majority of plane interactions, together with these between the US and China, are carried out in a protected {and professional} method, the official stated.
But in circumstances equivalent to this incident when they’re decided to be unsafe, the US responds via diplomatic and army channels via traces of communication with Beijing.
“We intend to do so in this case,” the official stated.
China claims a lot of the South China Sea as a part of its territorial waters, together with lots of the islands within the disputed physique of water, a few of which Beijing has militarised.
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The US doesn’t recognise these territorial claims and routinely conducts operations there, together with freedom of navigation operations via the South China Sea.
“The US Indo-Pacific Joint Force is dedicated to a free and open Indo-Pacific region and will continue to fly, sail and operate at sea and in international airspace with due regard for the safety of all vessels and aircraft under international law,” the assertion stated.
