US Navy Surveillance Aircraft Transits Taiwan Strait, Tailed by China’s Warplanes

The U.S. transit came a day after Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall sounded the alarm about the CCP’s growing military ambitions in the Indo-Pacific.

A U.S. Navy aircrew member does a pre-flight walkaround for the P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft during the US and Association of Southeast Asian Nations maritime exercise in the Gulf of Thailand on Sept. 5, 2019. Mladen Antonov/AFP via Getty Images

A U.S. surveillance aircraft flew through the Taiwan Strait on Sept. 17 as part of what the Seventh Fleet stated were protected freedom of navigation exercises, drawing Beijing’s ire.

The P-8A Poseidon, outfitted with radars and sensors, “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace” on Sept. 17, the Seventh Fleet said in a Sept. 17 statement.