China has deployed hundreds of unmanned fighter jets near the Taiwan Strait — Reuters
The Chinese military has deployed obsolete supersonic fighters, converted into strike drones, at six air bases near Taiwan.
This was reported by Reuters.
The use of such technology allows Beijing to place a significant burden on the island’s air defense systems in the event of an open conflict.
According to the latest report from the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, satellite images have captured rows of aircraft with swept-wing designs.
These aircraft closely resemble the J-6 fighters, which entered service with the Chinese Air Force as early as the 1960s.
“The Chinese military has deployed approximately 200 or more obsolete fighters, converted into drones, at airfields near the Taiwan Strait,” said J. Michael Dam, a senior research fellow at the Mitchell Institute.
The main danger posed by these fighter-drones lies in their versatility. They are capable of carrying actual combat payloads or serving as decoys to deliberately overload Taiwan’s radars and air defense systems.
Currently, unmanned aircraft have been spotted at strategic bases in Fujian and Guangdong provinces.
The location of these facilities in close proximity to the median line of the strait allows China to launch massive sorties within minutes.
Military experts suggest that Beijing plans to use these cheap drones as the “first wave” of an attack.
This would force Taiwan to expend precious and scarce air defense missiles on outdated equipment, effectively clearing the way for strikes by modern J-20 fighters.
As a reminder, China has dismissed U.S. accusations of secret nuclear tests as slander.
China has also launched large-scale ocean research.
