U.S. Air Force RQ-4 watched Chinese warplanes from above during their most recent flight near Taiwanese airspace
Taiwan News
Date: 2016/12/19
By Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff WriterNorthrop Grumman RQ-4 Global
An American RQ-4 Global Hawk drone shadowed Chinese military aircraft as they
An RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft like the one shown is currently flying non-military mapping missions over South, Central America and the Caribbean at the request of partner nations in the region. (U.S. Air Force photo/Bobbi Zapka)
tightly circled Taiwan’s airspace on Dec. 10, according to a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense who spoke to United Daily News.
According the official, when the PLA launched a squadron of jet fighters and bombers headed toward Taiwan on Dec. 10, Japan dispatched two F-15 Eagle fighter jets to monitor them while the U.S. launched EP-3 and RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft to surveil the Chinese warplanes. Meanwhile, the U.S. also sent RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned reconnaissance aircraft to monitor the overall situation from above at high altitude.
During this latest incident involving Chinese aircraft flying around Taiwan, 10 Chinese aircraft conducted a training exercise that passed through the Miyako Strait, the southern extent of Japan’s ADIZ, and then flew in a tight clockwise circle around the outside perimeter of Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), before exiting out the Bashi Channel on their way back to China. [FULL STORY]
