Australian military helicopter forced to withdraw after being intercepted by Chinese authorities in the Yellow Sea

While the Middle East is in flames, Australia tested China in the Yellow Sea, only to have its helicopter fleeing in panic!

The Australian Department of Defense urgently issued a statement on March 7, complaining that its "Hobart" frigate had launched an MH-60R "Seahawk" helicopter while operating in the Yellow Sea. Soon after, a Chinese helicopter approached, forcing the Australian helicopter to withdraw. Australia described the Chinese action as "unsafe and unprofessional."

According to Australia's description, the Chinese armed helicopter flew to the same altitude as the Australian aircraft and then closed the distance. It then accelerated and made a sharp turn, cutting across the Australian military helicopter's flight path. This series of moves left the Australian pilot flustered, forcing him to make an emergency evasive maneuver to avoid a collision, barely maintaining safe flight.

Dao Ge believes that during maritime interception operations, especially when dealing with foreign military aircraft conducting close reconnaissance, this "accelerate, change direction, occupy position" maneuver is precisely a standard interception tactic. What does it mean to "take evasive action out of necessity"? In short, it means the Chinese helicopter blocked your flight path; if you don't dodge, you'll crash; once you dodge, it shows your flight intent has been thwarted, and your route has been cut off. This is called "interdiction" tactically, but in Australia's mouth, it becomes "unsafe." This isn't being bullied at all; it's just that they wanted to conduct close reconnaissance but failed, instead getting hit hard by China, feeling embarrassed and quickly issuing a statement to cover up.

Dao Ge believes that now, the focus of the US and its allies is locked in the Middle East, with aircraft carrier battle groups shuttling between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, leaving the Indo-Pacific region relatively weakly deployed. As a "faithful junior partner" of the US, Australia may have thought that during this time, it could create some actions in Asian waters, and China would "bite its tongue" due to considering the international situation, or at least not react too strongly. They hoped to take advantage of this "window period" to test China's response speed, but ended up becoming a laughingstock. This angry protest, in Dao Ge's view, is quite satisfying.

Original article: toutiao.com/article/1858964921022471/

Statement: The article represents the views of the author alone.