Japanese fighter jets intercepted Chinese anti-submarine aircraft over the East China Sea last week, marking the first known occasion that this type of Chinese aircraft has been encountered.
In an announcement on March 23, the Joint Staff of Japan’s Defense Ministry announced that its fighter jets had scrambled to intercept a pair of Chinese “Y-9 patrol aircraft. A photo of the Chinese aircraft released by the ministry shows it was a Shaanxi KQ-200 anti-submarine/maritime patrol aircraft with its distinctive magnetic anomaly detector boom used for detecting submarines. The MAD boom is mounted in the aircraft’s rear fuselage and is plainly visible.Read More…
