Chinese Reco Uav spotted flying in Japan territorial airspace during Japanese training.

The Chinese military flew a new electronic warfare drone near the Japanese islands in the contested East China Sea on Friday, as Beijing continues to expand the activities of its air force in the region. The Joint Chiefs of Staff Office of the Japanese Ministry of Defense regularly reports on the movements of Chinese military aircraft within its Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), an area of international airspace where tracking and identification of foreign aircraft are necessary for national security purposes.
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A Chinese BZK-005D drone flies over the Miyako Strait in this photo provided by the Japan Joint Staff Office on August 9, 2024. (Picture source: Japan Joint Staff Office)

In its report released on Friday, the Joint Chiefs of Staff indicated that a Chinese BZK-005 drone had flown over the Miyako Strait after passing through the East China Sea. The Japanese report shows that the drone flew over waters south of the Japanese island of Okinawa before returning to mainland China.

The strait serves as a significant gateway for the Chinese navy and air force in the event of deployment in the Philippine Sea and the Pacific Ocean. It forms what is called the first island chain, a bottleneck stretching from Japan in the north to Taiwan and the Philippines in the south.

The BZK-005 is a medium and high-altitude, long-range reconnaissance drone capable of flying at 111 miles per hour with a flight endurance of 40 hours. It is in service with the Chinese air force and navy.

The drone spotted by the Japanese Air Force is a new electronic warfare variant of the BZK-005, known as the BZK-005D, according to a post by Chinese Military Aviation. This variant features an electronic intelligence pod mounted under the fuselage and equipped with blade antennas under the nose.

The last time Japan reported an observation of the BZK-005 was on August 28, 2023, when one of the drones flew over waters between Taiwan and Japan's westernmost island, Yonaguni. No blade antennas were visible under the nose of the drone. A Chinese reconnaissance drone BZK-005, spotted in the skies above the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea on August 28, 2023, is shown in this image released by the Joint Chiefs of Staff of Japan.

The U.S. military has informed its Taiwanese counterpart that China would deploy drones capable of conducting electronic warfare and jamming operations near the island, Taiwanese media reported on Sunday. A report, citing a source from the island's military, states that foreign experts have assessed that China has installed a variety of antennas and electronic warfare modules on some of its military drones to enhance electronic warfare capabilities against Taiwan's weapon systems.

The Chinese military operates daily around Taiwan. Some of its ships and aircraft have crossed the "Yonaguni Hole," 108 kilometers wide, between the Japanese island of Yonaguni and Taiwan, which concerns the Tokyo government. From Japan's perspective, Yonaguni would be a frontline island if a war broke out in the Taiwan Strait.
The Japanese Air Self-Defense Forces published a monthly report on fighter jet take-offs on Friday. In total, 85 aircraft took off to face the approach of Chinese and Russian military aircraft, a figure slightly higher than that of June (81). Most of the emergency flights (72) were performed in response to Chinese aircraft flying near Japanese airspace, while the remaining 13 emergency flights were in response to Russian aircraft.

The majority of operations were conducted by the southwest unit of the Japanese Air Force, tasked with protecting the airspace around the southwest islands of Japan, at the border between the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea.

In response to these observations and the increase in emergency take-offs (scramble) by the Japanese forces, China's Ministry of Defense did not wish to respond to inquiries from various Western media.