Taiwan has accused the Chinese military of a mass air incursion into the island’s air defense zone. A fleet of 18 People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including two nuclear-capable H-6 planes entered the zone on Friday, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said.
The nuclear capable bombers were accompanied by a Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, KJ-500 aerial warning and reconnaissance plane, as well as 12 J-11 and J-16 fighter jets.
The incursion prompted the scrambling of Taiwanese fighter jets and the activation of anti-aircraft missile systems “to monitor the activities” of the Chinese air fleet. The aircraft, however, did not enter the air space that Taiwan claims as its own. The Chinese military has, so far, remained silent on the run-in with the island’s military.