‘Significant projection of power’: Chilling details as ADF monitors Chinese flotilla in Philippine Sea
The Australian Defence Force is on high alert as chilling new details and pictures emerge from the Philippine Sea.
A Chinese flotilla being watched by the Australian Defence Force is likely to include a large amphibious assault ship that can host up to 30 helicopters, a destroyer, a frigate and a refuelling vessel.
Starboard Maritime Intelligence, a New Zealand-based company that provides monitoring expertise for governments and insurers worldwide, has published what are believed to be the first images of a Chinese flotilla.
Describing it as a “significant projection of power”, the company said the fortilla includes a Type 075 Landing Helicopter Dock “capable of hosting up to 30 helicopters and approximately 1,000 marines”, a Type 052D Destroyer and a Type 054A Frigate, to protect the taskforce, and a Type 903A replenishment vessel “carrying over 11,000 tons of fuel and dry stores”, the ABC reports.
“This support effectively untethers the flotilla from shore-based ports, extending its cruising range to over 10,000 nautical miles - sufficient to transit around major landmasses like Australia without entering port,” it told the publication.
Defence Minister Richard Marles confirmed yesterday that the ADF was closely monitoring the situation.
Speaking to media on Monday, Mr Marles would not reveal how many ships were in the Chinese flotilla but said the ADF would monitor the ships “until we know that they are not coming in the vicinity of Australia”.
“I want to confirm today that Defence is monitoring a Chinese PLA-N task group, which is currently in the Philippine Sea,” he told reporters.
“But I also want to put this into some context – we maintain constant maritime domain awareness in the geographic areas of interest, South-East Asia, North-East Asia, the North-East Indian Ocean and the Pacific.
“And in that context, we will routinely monitor the movements of PLA vessels.
“And when there are movements such as this, we will monitor them, particularly until we know that they are not coming in the vicinity of Australia.”
He said the ADF did “not have a sense of where (the task group) is going” and refused to “get into hypotheticals” about whether the Chinese ships would circumnavigate Australia as others did earlier this year.
“I would say, in respect of … the task group that came … to the vicinity of Australia earlier this year, that we absolutely had an unprecedented level of surveillance of that task group by the Royal Australian Navy,” Mr Marles said.
“And we did do it in conjunction with our friends and allies, but that saw an unprecedented level of commitment of the Royal Australian Navy, and you can be assured that at any point in the future we will bring that same degree of determination and commitment to any journey that happens in our particular area.”
‘Intimidate us’
It comes after the The Australian Financial Review reported last week that the ADF was tracking a fleet of Chinese ships, citing anonymous sources.
Following the report, Strategic Analysis Australia Director Michael Shoebridge told news.com.au last week that it “looks like Chinese navy ships are on their way to our backyard again”.
“It’s going to display China’s growing appetite to intimidate us close to home, and show our defence organisation’s failure to equip our navy with enough ships or act with any urgency,” he said.
The ADF did not respond specifically to the report at the time, saying only in a statement: “Australia maintains high situational awareness across our immediate region and routinely monitors all maritime and air traffic in Australia’s near approaches.”
Live fire drills caused flight chaos
The fortilla comes after three Chinese warships conducted live fire drills 640 kilometres off the south coast of New South Wales in February, disrupting dozens of commercial flights between Australia and New Zealand.
Australian officials said Beijing failed to give satisfactory notice, and commercial planes weren’t aware of the drills until a broadcast from the ships notified them.
“We weren’t notified by China, we became aware of the issue during the course of the day,” Defence Minister Richard Marles said at the time.
“What China did was put out a notification that it was intending to engage in live fire, and by that I mean a broadcast that was picked up by airlines, literally commercial planes that were flying across the Tasman.”
China’s defence ministry claimed it had issued repeated safety notices in advance and described Australia’s complaints as “unreasonable” and “hyped up”.
— with NCA NewsWire
Originally published as ‘Significant projection of power’: Chilling details as ADF monitors Chinese flotilla in Philippine Sea
