The People’s Liberation Army Navy Liaoning Carrier Strike Group departed the Philippine Sea and sailed back into the South China Sea on Tuesday, according to the Japanese government.
The CSG had taken part in the one day Joint Sword 2024B exercise on Monday. After sightings on Sunday and Monday, aircraft carrier CNS Liaoning (16), cruiser CNS Anshan (103) and destroyer CNS Urumqi (118) were sighted sailing in an area 304 miles south of Yonaguni Island on Tuesday afternoon, according to a news release from Japan’s Joint Staff Office. The ships subsequently sailed toward the South China Sea.
The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force confirmed that Liaoning carried out 90 launches and recoveries of its embarked fighter aircraft and 50 take-offs and landings of its embarked helicopters. JMSDF destroyer JS Kirisame (DD-104) conducted surveillance and information gathering, according to the release, which noted that fighter aircraft of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force scrambled in response to the Liaoning’s fighter launches.
On Monday, the People’s Liberation Army Eastern Theater Command carried out the Joint Sword-2024B exercise, a multi-service drill simulating an encirclement and blockade of Taiwan. A PLA spokesperson described the drills as a warning to Taiwan against seeking independence from China. The Liaoning CSG entered the Philippine Sea on Sunday as part of the exercise.
On Tuesday, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense issued a news release stating that from 6 a.m. on Monday to 6 a.m. on Tuesday it detected a total of 153 PLA aircraft, 14 PLAN ships and 12 official ships operating around Taiwan. Official ships is Taiwan’s term for China Coast Guard ships. The release also stated that 111 of the aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered Taiwan’s western, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zone.
“We have monitored the situation and responded,” reads the release.
In other developments, China Ministry of National Defense spokesperson Snr. Col. Wu Qian stated in a press conference that the PLAN has fully started the recruitment and selection of carrier-based naval aviation pilots for 2025 and will continue to select carrier-based aircraft flight trainees from high school graduates and undergraduate and master’s degree graduates from universities.
Wu was responding to a question about the PLAN’s recruitment of naval pilots trainees for 2025, and added that, with reference to other countries standards for naval aviation pilots, the PLAN has relaxed ophthalmology standards and made it clear that personnel who have undergone vision correction surgery can sign up for PLAN recruitment. Wu also said that to adapt to the requirements for take-off and landing of carrier-based aircraft in complex sea conditions, the PLAN has correspondingly added stereoscopic vision testing, visual contrast sensitivity testing, cranial MRI and chest CT and other testing content, and implemented a 15-hour air flight ability screening to improve the methodology and accuracy of the recruitment and selection of carrier-based aircraft flight trainees.
Wu did not say whether female pilot trainees would be recruited for the 2025 intake, but a PLA Daily report on Oct. 8 stated that there are no plans to recruit female pilots for 2025. In 2023, the PLAN opened recruitment of naval aviation pilots to female candidates.
On Tuesday, the JSO issued a number of news releases about PLAN and Russian Navy ship movements, along with the release on the Liaoning CSG. A second release stated that on Tuesday at 4 a.m., PLAN cruiser CNS Wuxi (104), destroyer CNS Xining (117), frigate CNS Linyi (547) and fleet oiler CNS Taihu (889) were sighted sailing north in an area 80 miles northeast of Miyako Island and subsequently sailed northwest between Miyako Island and Okinawa to enter the East China Sea. Destroyers JS Teruzuki (DD-116) and JS Asahi (DD-119) shadowed the PLAN ships, according to the release.
The four PLAN ships had set out in early September to Vladivostok, Russia, to take part in the Russian Navy’s Ocean 2024 exercise and subsequently carried out the PLAN-Russian Navy joint exercise Northern Joint 2024, wrapping it up on Sept. 28 near Russia’s Sakhalin Island. The PLAN ships then joined Russian Navy destroyers RFS Admiral Panteleyev (548) and RFS Admiral Tributs (564) to form a joint surface action group to carry out a joint patrol of the Pacific Ocean and conduct anti-submarine warfare drills. The joint patrol appeared to take place within Russian waters and international waters outside the U.S. and Japanese exclusive economic zone, as neither the U.S. nor Japan reported the presence of the surface action group in their EEZs. Previous joint patrols sailed near Alaska last year and around the Japanese home islands earlier this year.
The current joint patrol wrapped on Sunday, with the two forces separating that day, according to a Monday release by the JSO. On Friday, all six ships were sighted sailing west in an area 248 miles northeast of the Okinotorishima atoll, which lies in the Philippine Sea. Subsequently on Sunday, the four PLAN ships were sighted sailing west in an area 80 miles south of Oki Daito Island and on Monday were continuing to sail west in an area 229 miles south of Okinawa.
Meanwhile, on Sunday the two Russian Navy destroyers were sighted sailing northwest in an area 43 miles southwest of Oki Daito Island and subsequently sailed northwest on Monday in the waters between Miyako Island and Okinawa to enter the East China Sea. The release stated that JMSDF destroyers JS Sazanami (DD-113) and JS Asahi (DD-119), destroyer escorts JS Jintsu (DE-230) and JS Oyodo (DE-231) along with JMSDF P-1 Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) of Fleet Air Wing 1 based at JMSDF Kanoya Air Base and Fleet Air Wing 4 based at Naval Air Facility Atsugi and JMSDF P-3C Orion MPA of Fleet Air Wing 5 based at Naha Air Base, shadowed the Russian Navy and PLAN ships.
On Friday at 11 p.m., Russian Navy corvette RFS Gremyashchiy (337) was sighted sailing northeast in an area 24 miles northwest of Rebun Island, according to a third release issued Tuesday. From Friday to Saturday the corvette sailed east through La Pérouse Strait, which separates the Japanese main island of Hokkaido from Russia’s Sakhalin Island, and entered the Sea of Okhotsk. Fast attack craft JS Kumataka (PG-827) and a JMSDF P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft of Fleet Air Wing 2 based at JMSDF Hachinohe Air Base shadowed the Russian corvette, according to the release.
A fourth JSO release stated that on Tuesday at 3 a.m., PLAN Dongdiao-class surveillance ship Tianlangxing (794) was sighted sailing southwest in an area 68 miles east of Tanegashima Island and subsequently sailed west through the Osumi Strait toward the East China Sea. Minesweeper JS Miyajima (MSC-690) and a JMSDF P-1 MPA of Fleet Air Wing 1 shadowed the PLAN surveillance ship. The release noted that Tianlangxing had earlier sailed northeast through the Tsushima Strait from Sept. 7-8 and sailed east through La Pérouse Strait from Sept. 22-23.
A fifth release stated that at 8 a.m. on Oct. 9, PLAN destroyer CNS Shaoxing (134) and frigate CNS Xuzhou (530) were sighted sailing south in an area 49 miles northwest of Uotsuri Island and then continued sailing south in an area 49 miles west of Uotsuri Island. The ships subsequently sailed south in the waters between Yonaguni Island and Taiwan to enter the Philippine Sea. On Tuesday the two PLAN ships sailed north in the waters between Miyako Island and Okinawa and into the East China Sea. Destroyer escort JS Abukuma (DE-229), minesweeper JS Yakushima (MSC-602) and JMSDF P-3C Orions MPA of Fleet Air Wing 5 shadowed the PLAN ships, according to the release.
