Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

China starts testing robot spy planes

IAN BRUCE, Defence Correspondent November 15 2004

CHINA has begun test flights of airborne early-warning aircraft which are considered vital to any attempt to invade Taiwan.

Despite US efforts to block the sale of technology from Israel and Russia, the Chinese military has managed to develop its own version of the AWACs aircraft used by the West to manage and control the airspace over a battlefield.

Pentagon sources say that China could not mount a full-scale assault across the 100-mile-wide Taiwan Strait without deploying such flying command posts.

America managed to pressure Israel out of supplying a £750m airborne radar system in 2000 and then asked Russia not to sell eight, similar off-the-shelf systems a year later.

At least two test aircraft designed by China's own scientists have now been flown, using a combination of stolen and locally-developed technology.

A full fleet of eight to 12 airborne systems could be operational within two years, making an invasion of Taiwan possible.

AWACs aircraft track fighters, bombers, warships and even ground units over hundreds of square miles and act as electronic eyes and ears for commanders controlling a battle.

China has already based 600 ballistic missiles capable of bombarding Taiwan along its southern coast and has accelerated a programme of amphibious landing-ship construction.

Beijing has long regarded Taiwan as a breakaway province rather than an independent island.

The United States is committed to guaranteeing the island's independence from the Chinese mainland and continues to deploy carrier battlegroups to the South China Sea to counter any Chinese aggression.

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