Written by Kirsty Needham
The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) monitored Chinese naval warships while bypassing Australia last month, warning that it warned that it would use real-time fires in practice on civilian broadcasts, defense pilots said Tuesday.
A People’s Liberation Army Navy frigate conducted an unprecedented live shooting in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, resulting in 49 commercial flights being diverted.
China said it issued enough warnings for the exercise under international law, but Australian and New Zealand authorities said it has not met the notification’s best practices.
Commercial airlines first heard about the Chinese Navy broadcasts played by Virgin Australia pilots on the 121.5 MHz emergency broadcast channel.
Opposition Liberal leader Peter Dutton criticized the Labor government for “our national maritime surveillance was outsourced to Virgin Atlantic pilots” ahead of the national election in May.
The RAAF maritime surveillance pilot said at the Australian International Air Show in Avalon on Tuesday that Australia’s P-8A Poseidon was flying “high duration, high frequency sorting” and monitored the spread of Chinese naval warships to UHF and VHF at the time, which had not been publicly disclosed before.
“The transmissions passed are just standard warnings for their positions and their intention to perform live drills,” said P-8A Poseidon flight officer Patrick Makeham.
He described it as “similar to saying we will do real-time shooting sports in these areas.”
Air Commodore Gus Porter, Director General of RAAF’s Air Commodore Gus Porter, said the P-8A aircraft were used in anti-maritime warfare and prevented aggression.
“You don’t need to complete the task force’s highest point 24 hours a day to track their work accurately,” he added.
China criticized the RAAF P-8A aircraft conducts routine surveillance patrols in international waters in the South China Sea.
Last month, Australia complained to China about the “unsafe and unprofessional” action of Chinese fighter jets releasing flares within 30 meters (100 feet) of Australian P-8A aircraft.
(Reported by Kirsty Needham of Avalon, Australia; Editor of Jamie Freed)
