The Japanese Ministry of Defense has reported that 4 PLAN vessels crossed the strait south of Kyushu on June 29.
On Thursday, June 29, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLAN) Navy conducted open-sea training exercises with its Type 075 amphibious assault ship in the western Pacific for the first time.
The Japanese Defense Ministry announced Friday that two PLAN vessels had been detected crossing the Osumi Strait south of Kyushu and entering the Pacific Ocean. The two vessels were identified as the Type 075 Guangxi amphibious assault ship, and the Type 052 Baotou destroyer, UDN reported.
On Thursday afternoon, two other PLAN ships sailed into the western Pacific north of Japan’s Amami Islands to rendezvous with Guangxi and Baotou. They were identified as the Type 054 Anyang frigate and the Type 903 Chaohu support ship.
The Japan Self-Defense Forces deployed fighters, reconnaissance planes and naval assets to monitor the passage of the four PLAN vessels, according to reports.
Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) P-1 and P-3C Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) as well as the Hayabusa-class guided missile patrol vessel JS Shirataka (PG-829) sighted the amphibious assault ship Type 075 Guangxi (32) and Type 052D (Luyang III-class) destroyer Baotou (133) sailing northeast in an area 140 km southwest of the Kusagaki islets of Kagoshima from the East China Sea to the Western Pacific through the Osumi Strait, which lies between the Osumi Peninsula and the island of Tanegashima, the JSO said.
The Type 075 Guangxi was completed in April 2022. Its passage through the Osumi Strait marks the first time that a PLAN Type 075 amphibious assault ship (the PLAN’s second largest warship type after its aircraft carriers) has been sighted in waters beyond what is known as the First Island Chain of Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines.
China’s state-run Global Times newspaper said the exercises had no specific goal in mind and were meant to get the sailors more used to the Guangxi’s capabilities and natural conditions in the open sea, far from shore. However, the Global Times claimed that the exercises may serve as a warning to “Taiwan independence secessionists and external interfering forces.”
Duncan DeAeth
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