China's new J-10C fighter jets have been put into service, which marks an improvement in the combat capabilities and defense of the Air Force of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the Air Force announced in a statement on Monday.

The J-10C is a third generation home-made fighter with multiple functions and is equipped with an avionics system. It is also equipped with multiple advanced armament and be effective in land or sea combat, said the statement released on the official Weibo account of the PLA Air Force.

The fighter jet was first revealed to the public at the military parade marking the 90th founding anniversary of the PLA in July 2017 and has attracted wide attention.

Taiwan's CNA reported in November 2016 that the J-10C is more streamlined than the J-10B to reduce drag. Moreover, Hong Kong military analyst Leung Kwok-leung says that the J-10C has stealth capabilities entirely different from existing stealth warplanes.

The report says that because the J-10C absorbs radar waves into its fuselage, thus weakening its signals, so that the radar waves will not bounce back to the radar. This is a brand new stealth technology.

The Air Force said on Monday that J-10C fighters have been involved in actual combat training and played great role in two combat maneuvers - "Red Sword 2016" and "Red Sword 2017", which lays the foundation for the combat capability of the PLA Air Force.

The PLA Air Force has quickly developed and has become a main influence in controlling disputes and crises, stopping a war and winning any battle, according to the PLA Air Force.

Shen Jinke, PLA Air Force spokesperson, was quoted in the statement as saying that China's opening-up and reform cannot succeed without a peaceful environment.

The Air Force has made all efforts to train soldiers and prepare for actual battle, and to enhance their defense capabilities and strategic projection capability to protect China's airspace and national interests, Shen said. </s> China’s new indigenously developed multi-role stealth fighter jet J-10C, capable of striking precisely both land and maritime targets, were put into active combat duty today, the military said.

The third-generation supersonic fighter jets are equipped with an advanced avionics system and multiple advanced armament, making it capable of precisely striking both land and maritime targets within medium and close range, the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) said in a statement.

China had in February commissioned its the latest J-20 stealth fighter into its air force’s combat service. The J-20 is China’s fourth-generation medium and long-range fighter jet.

The Chinese supersonic fighter jet had made its debut in July last year, when the PLA marked its 90th anniversary, at Zhurihe military training base in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The fighter will enrich the air force’s offensive and defensive system and improve its capability to fulfil duties and missions, the statement said.

Shen Jinke, a spokesperson for the PLAAF, said that the air force will advance training and war readiness, and sharpen its striking, defensive, and air delivery capabilities.

It will also firmly safeguard China’s airspace security and national strategic interests in the new era, Shen was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Taiwan’s state-owned news agency the Central News Agency (CNA) had earlier reported that the J-10C is more streamlined than the J-10 B to reduce drag.

Hong Kong military analyst Leung Kwok-leung said that the J-10C has stealth capabilities entirely different from existing stealth warplanes.

The J-10C fuselage absorbs radar waves and weakens its signals, as a result, the waves do not bounce back to the radar, making the plane stealth, the state-run Global Times said quoting the CNA report today.

It is a brand new stealth technology, it said.

The news of induction of the new warplane came at a time when Chinese military held its biggest ever military exercises and parade in the disputed South China Sea last week.

The naval hardware seen at the parade, inspected by Chinese President Xi Jinping, showcased achievements made by the People’s Liberation Army Navy, including nuclear submarines in its modernisation drive, military observers said.

A researcher at the PLA Naval Military Studies Research Institute, Senior Captain Cao Weidong said that the Navy received a large number of new weapons with advanced capabilities over the past five years and new hardware features a higher information capability and optimised joint operation system and thus can better carry out sophisticated joint operations.

Cui Yiliang, editor-in-chief of Modern Ships magazine, said the Navy showed almost all of its new hardware delivered during the past 10 years. It is now capable of conducting every naval operation, from strategic strike to amphibious assault, he said.

“The nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines involved in the parade are of the latest generation and have many improvements compared with their predecessors. The new nuclear-powered attack submarines are reportedly capable of launching cruise missiles,” he said.

Wu Peixin, a defence industry analyst in Beijing, said the PLA Navy has been steadily and rapidly catching up with the US Navy in terms of technological and operational capabilities of its hardware. </s> Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-16 18:17:40|Editor: ZX

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File photo shows a J-10C fighter jet in a training. China's new multi-role fighter jet J-10C began combat duty Monday, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) air force announced. It is China's third-generation supersonic fighter and made its debut when the PLA marked its 90th anniversary in July 2017 at Zhurihe military training base in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Equipped with an advanced avionics system and various airborne weapons, the domestically-developed fighter has airstrike capabilities within medium and close range and is capable of precisely striking land and maritime targets. (Xinhua/Xi Bobo)

BEIJING, April 16 (Xinhua) -- China's new multi-role fighter jet J-10C began combat duty Monday, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) air force announced.

Equipped with an advanced avionics system and various airborne weapons, the domestically-developed fighter has airstrike capabilities within medium and close range and is capable of precisely striking land and maritime targets, the air force said in a statement.

It is China's third-generation supersonic fighter and made its debut when the PLA marked its 90th anniversary in July 2017 at Zhurihe military training base in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The fighter will enrich the air force's offensive and defensive system and improve its capability to fulfill duties and missions, according to the statement.

Shen Jinke, a spokesperson for the PLA air force, said that the air force will advance training and war readiness, and sharpen its striking, defensive, and air delivery capabilities.

It will also firmly safeguard China's airspace security and national strategic interests in the new era, Shen said.

The new jet is modified from the J-10 fighter jet and will help improve the air force's fighting and war-readiness capabilities, said Wang Mingzhi, a military expert.

The air force is gradually building a combat system adapted to the need of informationized air warfare, comprised of heavy air superiority fighters such as J-11 series, multi-role fighters such as J-10 series and J-16, new-generation stealth fighters such as J-20, and medium and long-range bombers such as H-6K, Wang said. </s> File photo of J-10C (Official blog of PLA Air Force)

Equipped with an advanced avionics system and various airborne weapons, the domestically-developed fighter has airstrike capabilities within medium and close range and is capable of precisely striking land and maritime targets. </s> Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing Wen has said her country’s air force will conduct a “forceful expulsion” of any Chinese military aircraft that cross the so-called “Median Line” in the Taiwan Strait, which serves as de facto boundary between it and the People’s Republic of China. This comes a day after two Chinese J-11 fighter jets violated the line, prompting Taiwanese jets to scramble in response and eliciting a particularly condemnation from Taipei. This initial incident also followed reports that the United States was preparing to sell advanced F-16 Viper fighter jets to Taiwan, where Beijing has long said it draws a “red line,” and a significant increase in American naval patrols through the Taiwan Strait. Tsai’s announcement first appeared in a post on her official Facebook page on April 1, 2019. The day before, the pair of Chinese J-11 fighter jets had crossed the median line and remained there for approximately 10 minutes, before returning to the other side. Chinese violations of the Median Line are not uncommon, but in the past, the aircraft have typically withdrawn quickly. Though Taiwan sent unspecified fighter jets out to meet the J-11s, it's unclear whether the two actually came within visual distance of each other.

This follows months of increasingly aggressive Chinese aerial activity around Taiwan, which is clearly meant to demonstrate the capabilities of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) in any future cross-strait skirmish. In May 2018, PLAAF fighter jets and H-6 bombers had notably flown a route that effectively encircled the island, showing its ability to attack from virtually any direction, something that had not necessarily been the case in the past. Beijing “should stop behavior of this sort, which endangers regional peace, and not be an international troublemaker,” Huang Chung Yen, a spokesperson for the Taiwanese president, had said after the boundary line incursion on Mar. 31, 2019, according to Reuters. President Tsai had ordered the country’s military “to complete all tasks on war preparation,” he added.

It’s not entirely clear from Tsai’s statement exactly what measures the Taiwanese Air Force will take in the future to eject Chinese aircraft that cross the Median Line. It certainly means that its combat jets will intercept any incoming planes and demand that they leave immediately, but what amount of “force” Taiwan’s pilots might use to ensure compliance with those instructions remains to be seen. The danger, especially with not knowing the exact extent of Taiwan’s new policy, is that miscommunication or miscalculation in a future incident might quickly lead to a larger cross-strait skirmish. Regardless, Tsai’s statement is a significant escalation in rhetoric and it's hard to see how it won't elicit a fiery response from the government in Beijing. So far, however, China’s Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry had declined to comment on the breach of the Median Line and the response from Tsai and other Taiwanese authorities. Tsai’s new threat to respond more forcefully to future Median Line violations also reflects a recent spike in tensions between the two parties, as well as between China and the United States, the latter being Taiwan’s principle international ally. After establishing diplomatic ties with China in 1979, the U.S. government broke off technical relations with authorities in Taiwan, but continues to work with officials there through other channels. The United States also reserves the right to sell weapons and other military hardware, ostensibly to bolster the Taiwanese military’s ability to defend against a Chinese intervention. However, in the past, the U.S. government has often shied away from selling Taiwan more advanced military systems that might draw particular ire from Beijing. The sale of new, or even upgraded, F-16 fighter jets to help improve the capability of the increasingly geriatric Taiwanese air force has been a particular saga, which you can read about more here. This attitude has undergone a noticeable change under U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, which has developed stronger ties with Tsai’s government.

In March 2019, reports emerged that U.S. President Donald Trump’s Administration was preparing to approve the sale of dozens of new Block 70 F-16s, one of the latest and most advanced configurations of the jet that Lockheed Martin offers. Taiwan’s acquisition of these more capable fighter jets has long been a “red line” for China and this reported deal may have been part of what prompted the PLAAF to send its J-11s across the Median Line, at least in part, in the first place. The incursion also came just days after the U.S. Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur and the U.S. Coast Guard’s Legend-class cutter USCGC Bertholf sailed through the Taiwan Strait on a so-called Freedom of Navigation patrol, or FONOP. This was the sixth such patrol in nine months, which reflects a major uptick in FONOPs through this region under Trump. There have also been reports that the Trump administration is considering sending an aircraft carrier through the Strait, which would only further heighten regional tensions. In January 2019, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) released a China Military Power report that concluded Beijing’s desire to eventually coerce Taiwan to reunify with the mainland was the “primary driver” of the country’s efforts to expand and modernize its military capabilities. This same report also specifically cited then-U.S. President Bill Clinton’s decision to send two carrier strike groups through the Taiwan Strait in 1996, a massive show of force in response to a major regional crisis at the time, as a key incident that kicked off Beijing’s efforts to rapidly increase the size and capabilities of its forces. The People’s Liberation Army has been notably focused on developing means to counter American aircraft carriers in any future crisis.

The present escalating war of words between China and Taiwan and China and the United States certainly points to a risk of another crisis similar to the one in 1996. In that instance, the inciting incident was the U.S. government’s decision to allow then-President Lee Teng Hui to speak at Cornell University, his alma mater, on “Taiwanese Democratization.” Authorities Beijing had branded Lee as an independence-minded “traitor.” The current Chinese government under President Xi Jinping has similarly labeled Tsai an “independence extremist” and China’s premier has not shied away from threatening to use force to prevent the island from formally breaking away and declaring itself an independent country. “The country is growing strong, the nation is rejuvenating and unification between the two sides of the strait is the great trend of history,” Xi said in a New Year’s address aimed square at Taiwan that he gave before a gathering in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Jan. 2, 2019. “We make no promise to abandon the use of force, and retain the option of taking all necessary measures.”

In 1996, China had responded to Lee’s talk in the United States with a series of snap military drills, including firing DF-15 short-range ballistic missiles near the Taiwanese-controlled Pengjia islet. This, in turn, led to the U.S. Navy show of force involving the two carriers. It’s not clear how a similar series of altercations might go today, and whether sailing carrier groups into the region might be enough now to defuse the situation, especially given China’s increasingly assertive stance elsewhere. Just in January 2019, Chinese forces performed a missile drill involving its relatively new DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missiles that seemed aimed at threatening the prospect of long-range strikes on American forces in the South China Sea. In October 2018, there had also been a very dangerous encounter between People’s Liberation Army Navy and U.S. Navy warships in that hotly contested region. The video below shows Chinese personnel conducting a snap drill involving the DF-26 IRBM in January 2019. </s> Two Japanese fighter jets took "provocative actions" at a high speed near a pair of Chinese fighter jets that were carrying out patrols in the East China Sea on June 17, China's defence ministry said in a microblog statement on Monday, without specifying where exactly the incident took place.

The Japanese planes used fire-control radar to "light up" the Chinese aircraft, the statement added.

Japan's senior military officer has acknowledged there was a scramble but has denied that any radar lock by the Chinese jet occurred or that the incident turned dangerous.

"The Japanese plane's provocative actions caused an accident in the air, endangering the safety of personnel on both sides, and destroying the peace and stability in the region," China's Defence Ministry said, adding the Chinese aircraft "responded resolutely".

China called on Japan to cease all provocative action, the statement added.

The statement about the incident comes after Japan's top military commander accused China of escalating military activity in the East China Sea, saying Japanese emergency scrambles to counter Chinese jets almost doubled over the past three months.

Japan is embroiled in a dispute with China in the East China Sea over ownership of a group of islands which lie about 220 km (140 miles) northeast of Taiwan, known as the Senkakus in Tokyo and the Diaoyu islands in Beijing.

Japan is worried that China is escalating its activity in the East China Sea in response to Tokyo's pledge to support countries in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines and Vietnam, that oppose China's territorial claims in the South China Sea. </s> Equipped with an advanced avionics system and various airborne weapons, the domestically-developed fighter has airstrike capabilities within medium and close range and is capable of precisely striking land and maritime targets, the air force said in a statement.

It is China's third-generation supersonic fighter and made its debut when the PLA marked its 90th anniversary in July 2017 at Zhurihe military training base in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The fighter will enrich the air force's offensive and defensive system and improve its capability to fulfill duties and missions, according to the statement.

Shen Jinke, a spokesperson for the PLA air force, said that the air force will advance training and war readiness, and sharpen its striking, defensive, and air delivery capabilities.

It will also firmly safeguard China's airspace security and national strategic interests in the new era, Shen said. </s> Beijing: China's military has carried out its first ever live-fire drills using an aircraft carrier and fighters in the northeastern Bohai Sea close to Korea, state media said.

China's growing military presence in the disputed South China Sea has fuelled concern, with the United States criticising its militarization of maritime outposts and holding regular air and naval patrols to ensure freedom of navigation.

No other country has claims in China's busy waterway of the Bohai Sea, but the drills come amid new tension over self-ruled Taiwan, following US President-elect Donald Trump's recent telephone call with the island's president that upset Beijing.

Ten vessels and 10 aircraft engaged in air-to-air, air-to-sea and sea-to-air combat drills that featured guided missiles, state broadcaster Chinese Central Television reported late on Thursday.

"This is the first time an aircraft carrier squadron has performed drills with live ammunition and real troops," it said.

China's Soviet-built Liaoning aircraft carrier and a formation of warships carried out aerial interception, anti-aircraft and anti-missile drills, in which Shenyang J-15 fighter jets carrying live missiles also participated, CCTV said.

It broadcast images of fighter jets taking off from the carrier, firing missiles and destroying a target at sea.

The Liaoning has participated in previous military exercises, including some in the South China Sea, but the country is still years off from perfecting carrier operations similar to those the United States has practiced for decades.

On Wednesday, a US think tank said China had been installing anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems on artificial islands in the South China Sea, prompting China to defend its right to install military hardware there.

China's exercises aim to test the equipment and troop training levels, an unidentified navy official told the official China News Service.

Last December the Defence Ministry confirmed China was building a second aircraft carrier to go with the existing vessel, but its launch date is unclear.

China keeps its aircraft carrier programme a state secret, and CCTV blurred images showing the cockpit instrument panel of one aircraft involved in the Bohai Sea drills.

Beijing could build multiple aircraft carriers over the next 15 years, the Pentagon said in a report last year.

China's successful operation of the Liaoning is the first step in what state media and some military experts believe will be the deployment of domestically built carriers by 2020. </s> Image copyright AFP Image caption File picture of the Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jet

Two Chinese Sukhoi Su-30 jets have conducted an "unprofessional" intercept of a US aircraft, the US military said.

One of the Chinese jets came as close as 150ft (45m) to the US WC-135 plane and flew upside down above it, according to US officials cited by CNN.

The US says the plane was on a mission to detect radiation in international airspace over the East China Sea.

Tensions have repeatedly risen over US activity near the resource-rich international waters off China's coast.

The intercept, which took place on Wednesday, was deemed unprofessional "due to the manoeuvres by the Chinese pilot, as well as the speeds and proximity of both aircraft," Air Force spokesman Lt Col Lori Hodge said.

She said the issue was "being addressed with China through appropriate diplomatic and military channels", and a military investigation was under way.

China has not commented on the incident, but it accuses the US of carrying out reconnaissance flights over Chinese coastal waters and regularly calls on the US to reduce patrols in the area.

China claims sovereignty over almost all of the disputed territory in the South and East China seas, though several other countries in the region have competing claims.

China has backed its expansive claims with island-building and naval patrols.

The US sniffer aircraft has previously been used to detect evidence of possible nuclear tests by North Korea.

Why is the South China Sea contentious?

South China Sea- Island, rock or reef?

'Routine operations'

Separately, China and South East Asian countries have agreed a framework for a long-awaited code of conduct for the disputed South China Sea, China's foreign ministry said, without giving details on the content.

It will now be submitted to the foreign ministers of the countries in August.

Over the years, the US, China and several of the South East Asian countries have had disputes over rival activity in the South China Sea.

In February, a US aircraft carrier started what Washington described as "routine operations" in the South China Sea, with a fleet of supporting warships.

The deployment came despite Chinese warnings against challenging Beijing's sovereignty in the region.

In May 2016, two Chinese fighters carried out a similar intercept of a US military aircraft over the South China Sea.

At the time, the US military said its maritime reconnaissance aircraft was carrying out a routine patrol in the area.

In 2001, a Chinese jet and a US Navy surveillance aircraft collided off Hainan Island, killing the Chinese pilot.

The US spy plane was forced to make an emergency landing on the island and China held the crew members for 11 days, sparking a major diplomatic standoff.
China's People's Liberation Army says the nation's J-10C fighter jets have entered combat service.