Chinese navy ship fires laser at RAAF aircraft

A Chinese navy ship fired a military-grade laser at a RAAF aircraft in a move slammed as “unprofessional and unsafe” by the Australian Defence Force.

A Chinese navy ship fired a military-grade laser at an RAAF aircraft that was monitoring it in the Arafura Sea.

Australia has reacted with fury after a Chinese warship fired a military-grade laser at an RAAF aircraft that was monitoring it as it passed Northern Australia.

In the early hours of Thursday morning an RAAF P-8A Poseidon, monitoring a Chinese destroyer and an amphibious transport dock vessel as they sailed through the Arafura Sea, was hit by a military-grade laser.

Laser attacks on aircraft can injure pilots and affect an aircraft’s systems, and are considered highly dangerous and provocative.

The incident, which occurred in international waters but inside Australia’s exclusive economic zone and within sight of the mainland north of the Gulf of Carpentaria, is being viewed as a major escalation of Chinese aggression in the region.

In a statement, the Australian Defence Force said the act had the potential to endanger lives.

“We strongly condemn unprofessional and unsafe military conduct,” it said.

“These actions could have endangered the safety and lives of the ADF personnel.

“Such actions are not in keeping with the standards we expect of professional militaries.”

Chinese fishing fleets have for several years been accused of using lasers to disorient aircraft monitoring them.

China has also frequently used them in the contested South China Sea.

But a laser attack on RAAF aircraft so close to the Australian mainland represents a major escalation of tension between the PLA and Australia’s armed forces.

The last time a PLA warship used a military-grade laser against an RAAF aircraft was in a 2019 incident involving a helicopter on exercises in the South China Sea.

In 2020, the US issued a formal protest after the PLA used similar military-grade lasers on US aircraft near the Philippines.

P-8A Poseidon is a military version of a Boeing 737-800 and carries a pilot and co-pilot as well as several mission specialists.

The Chinese ships were a Luyang-class guided missile destroyer and a PLA-N Yuzhao-class amphibious transport dock vessel. The two vessels have since passed through the Torres Strait and are in the Coral Sea.

The provocative Chinese action comes as national security is threatening to became a major issue at this year’s federal election.

Last week in parliament, Defence Minister Peter Dutton said the Chinese government wanted Labor to win the next election.

There have also been accusations in recent weeks that Chinese spies had sought to influence the selection of Labor’s candidates in NSW, after ASIO director-general Mike Burgess revealed his agency had foiled a plot by an unnamed foreign power against an unnamed Australian political party.

Mr Burgess gave a rare television interview on Wednesday in which he said it was “not helpful” to politicise national security, amid increasing attacks from the Coalition against Labor over China.

On the same day Prime Minister Scott Morrison called a Labor frontbencher a “Manchurian candidate” in parliament, Mr Burgess fronted an interview on the ABC.

In it, he was at pains to point out foreign interference targeted all members of parliament, regardless of their political party.

“We don’t believe that a foreign government could actually change the outcome of our election for a whole range of reasons,” he said.

“Our election process and our system of democracy is robust.

“I’m very confident that the vast majority of politicians that we deal with are actually thoroughly resistant to that type of foreign interference.”

Mr Morrison was on Wednesday forced to withdraw a comment in Question Time in which he called Labor’s deputy leader, Richard Marles, a “Manchurian candidate” – a reference to a politician being used as a puppet by an enemy or power.

Mr Burgess also told a Senate estimates hearing last week that foreign interference was an “equal opportunity” threat and national security should not be politicised.

Originally published as Chinese navy ship fires laser at RAAF aircraft