A Russian Navy surveillance ship made a nine-day cruise in the vicinity of Japan’s southwest islands approaching as close as 12 nautical miles from the coastline, according to a Monday release by Japan’s Joint Staff Office.
At the same time a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy Dongdiao class surveillance ship transited the Miyako Strait to enter the Philippine Sea on Saturday while Chinese Maritime Patrol Aircraft and a Russian Electronic Intelligence aircraft conducted flights in international airspace around Japan according to JSO releases on Tuesday.
On Feb. 1, Russian Navy surveillance ship Kareliya (535) was sighted sailing south in an area 31 miles southeast of Okinawa. On Feb. 4, Kareliya sailed northeast in the contiguous waters southeast of the island.
Kikaijima, part of the Amani Islands archipelago which lies between Okinawa and the main island of Kyushu and from Feb. 7 to 8, sailed from east to west in the waters and contiguous waters east of Miyazaki Prefecture, which lies on the east coast of the main island of Kyushu.
On Feb. 9, Kareliya then sailed west through the Osumi Strait, an international waterway which lies between the southeast tip of Kyushu and Tanegashima Island to enter the East China Sea.
The release noted that Kareliya had earlier sailed southwest through the Tsushima Strait from Nov. 11 to 12, 2024 and on Nov. 14, 2024 sailed between Okinawa and Miyako Island to enter the Philippine Sea.
Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) destroyer escort JS Sendai (DE-232), fleet oiler JS Towada (AOE-422), JMSDF P-1 MPA of Fleet Air Wing 1 based at JMSDF Kanoya Air Base on Kyushu and JMSDF P-3C Orion MPA of Fleet Air Wing 5 based at Naha Air Base on Okinawa shadowed the Russian ship according to the release.
In a second release on Monday, the JSO stated that at 2 p.m. on Saturday, PLAN Dongdiao class surveillance ship Yuhengxing (798) was sighted sailing south in an area 56 miles northeast of Miyako Island and subsequently sailed south through the waters between Miyako Island and Okinawa to enter the Philippine Sea. The 155 mile wide passageway between Miyako Island and Okinawa is known as the Miyako Strait and the international waters and airspace there is routinely used by PLAN ships and Chinese military aircraft to transit between the East China Sea and Philippine Sea.
On Tuesday, the JSO issued a release stating that on Monday afternoon, a Chinese Y-9 MPA had flown in from the East China Sea, flew through the airspace between Miyako Island and Okinawa to enter the Philippine Sea where it conducted a circuit flight then flew back the same way to exit the Philippine Sea to enter the East China Sea.
A second release reported on a Chinese Y-9 MPA conducting a similar flight to Monday’s flight on Tuesday morning while a third release reported that on Tuesday afternoon, a presumed Chinese Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) flew in from the East China Sea and passed between Yonaguni Island and Taiwan to reach the Philippine Sea and then turned around to fly back the same way to return to the East China Sea.
All three releases stated that in response, fighter aircraft from the Southwest Air Defence Command of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) were scrambled in response.
A fourth release on Tuesday stated that in the afternoon of that day, a Russian IL-20 ELINT aircraft flew in from the Russian continent, then flew southwest through the Sea of Japan before changing course in international airspace off the coast of Kyogamisaki, Kyoto Prefecture on the main island of Honshu to head northwest towards the Russian continent. Fighter aircraft from the JASDF Northern Air Command along with fighter aircraft from other JASDF commands were scrambled in response, according to the release.
Japan’s archipelagic geography with its straits being international waterways means that foreign military ships and aircraft have the right of innocent passage through the waters and airspace around it. Japan though, having classed Russia, China and North Korea as the cause of the “most severe security environment faced by Japan since the Second World War”, routinely tracks the passage of Russian and Chinese ships, aircraft and UAVs within Japan’s 200 nm Exclusive Economic Zone with the JSO issuing releases reporting on the passages of such which includes maps and photos taken by shadowing JMSDF ships and aircraft and intercepting JASDF fighter aircraft.
