Three Chinese warships that have circumnavigated most of Australia over the past two weeks, are now 305 nautical miles (about 550 kilometres) southeast of Perth, sailing through the underside of the continent.
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has tracked the small flotilla of Chinese warships and has released regular public updates on its whereabouts.
People’s Liberation Army-Navy (PLA-N) Task Group 107, is comprised of the Jiangkai-class frigate Hengyang, the heavily armed Renhai-class Cruiser Zunyi, and the Fuchi-class replenishment vessel Weishanhu.
On March 1, the ships were monitored at 480 nautical miles southwest of the defence hub of Adelaide.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the ADF would continue to keep an eye on the vessels, noting Royal Australian Navy vessels, the HMAS Stuart and HMAS Warramunga, were monitoring their movements.
“We’ll continue to respond in appropriate way and will continue to monitor there,” he told reporters.
“I have every faith in our Australian Defence Force to make sure they get that done.”
On Feb. 21, the vessels caused a stir when they moved to conduct apparent live fire exercises in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand.
The incident also raised questions about Australia’s preparedness after it was revealed commercial airline pilots were the first to be notified about the exercise.
A Virgin Airline pilot heard a warning from the PLA-N fleet via a specific radio frequency between pilots, before alerting Australia’s traffic control service, Airservices Australia.
Airservices then notified the ADF.
However, there was a significant time delay of about 30 minutes between when the exercise is supposed to have began, and when Australian authorities knew what was happening.
