US Military Accuses China of Targeting Its Aircraft

According to US Military officials, on 20 different occasions since September last year, Chinese Lasers have been used to target US aerial operations in the Pacific. The latest incident has occurred just 10 days before. Though these incidents didn't result in any injury or medical complications but are sufficient to generate an alarm of a threat.

The laser attacks are of similar nature that occurred in Djibouti in East Africa in the beginning of the year, where the laser attack injured US airmen, the attack is suspected to be originated from a Chinese military airbase nearby. Though China has denied such attack accusing the US of implicating China with fabricated stories in media, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said, “according to what we have learned from the relevant authorities, the accusations in the relevant reports by US media are totally groundless and purely fabricated”.

The recent attacks occurred in and around the East China Sea, which is a disputed area with a series of islands including Sen Kaku, claimed by both China and Japan. Japanese and Chinese military and civilian ships regularly use the water of the area.

A US Marine Spokesperson also said that the recent attack originated “from a range of different sources, both ashore and from fishing vessels.” The report and the quote have been published in the Aviation Week and Space Technology publication.

With the ambitions of China to extend up to the South China Sea, there arises tension numerous times over the disputed area in recent years and occasionally brought Japanese and Chinese air and naval forces face to face, sometimes leading to dangerous situations. This year James Mattis, US Defense Secretary also confirmed the commitment of US in defending Japan and its disputed islands.

According to experts the shelf laser pointers can affect and proved to be hazardous to pilots flying aircrafts and aiming a laser beam on an aircraft is also a federal crime in the US. It is also believed that the Chinese army resorted to using lasers to interfere and disturb the US aircraft movement in the South China Sea.

It is also found in a report of the Chinese Military official newspaper in 2015, the PLA Daily that “China has been updating its home-made blinding laser weapons in recent years to meet the needs of different combat operations.” According to the newspaper report, Chinese forces have acquired four types of laser blinding weapons.

It is important to note that both the US and China have agreed to the Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons, according to which use of laser blinding weapons are prohibited as a method and means of any kind of warfare.

The laser attacks first came to light, when a number of US government officials in China complained of mysterious incidents including the sonic attack involving diplomats at the US embassy in Cuba. In another such incident, a US government employee fell ill, resulting in brain injury at the beginning of the year 2018 in Guangzhou.