The Japan MoD has disclosed two airborne ELINT flights by Chinese PLA aircraft near Japanese airspace on 26 and 27 March 2024. (Japan Ministry of Defense/Janes)
A Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Guizhou WZ-7 Xianglong (Soaring Dragon) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was observed near Japanese airspace over the Sea of Japan (East Sea) for the first time.
This high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) UAV appeared from the direction of the “continental area” on “the morning of 26 March 2024”, the Japan Ministry of Defense (MoD) said.
A map issued by the MoD showed the WZ-7 flying a counterclockwise route over the Sea of Japan (East Sea) before turning northwest towards North Korea and Russia. The event prompted the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) to scramble fighter aircraft from its Chūbu (Central) Air Defense Force (of the JASDF Central Area sector), according to the MoD.
The WZ-7 “circled over the Sea of Japan [East Sea],” the MoD said.
Based on the MoD's map of the incident, Janes assesses that JASDF aircraft stopped tracking the WZ-7 after it exited Japan's air-defence identification zone (ADIZ). The MoD added, however, that the aircraft was observed heading “northwest, back towards the continent”.
The WZ-7 has previously been identified and monitored near and within Japanese airspace. Over a 48-hour period from 1 to 2 January 2023, the JASDF monitored at least two WZ-7 sorties near Japanese territory. However, these flights were over the Miyako Strait and over the Western Pacific.
It is possible that the latest WZ-7 originated from the PLA Air Force's (PLAAF's) Yishuntun Air Base near the city of Shuangliao in China's Jilin province, near North Korea. According to Janes
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