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PETALING JAYA: A US Air Force plane used a transponder code to impersonate a Malaysian plane while spying on Chinese military bases, US-based Popular Mechanics reported, citing a Chinese think tank.
The RC-135W Rivet Joint reconnaissance aircraft flew off the Chinese island of Hainan on Tuesday (September 8), reaching 90 kilometers from the Chinese mainland.
The South China Sea Survey Initiative, a think tank operated by the Chinese government, shared a couple of screenshots showing an RC-135W take off from Kadena Air Base, an Air Force base. of the United States on the island of Okinawa.
The plane flew southwest, following the Ryukyu island chain, past Taiwan, to roam off the coast of Hainan Island, Popular Mechanics said, adding that enough details were provided on Twitter for independent verification.
>>> A US surveillance plane disguised as a Malaysian plane is suspected.
On September 8, USAF RC-135W (# AE01CE) departed #Kadena for #SCS mission. Later on the same route a “Malaysian Airplane” (# 750548) appeared, entering the SCS and patrolling intensively between #Hainan and #Paracels. pic.twitter.com/2dfVy4844n
– SCS Polling Initiative (@SCS_PI) September 8, 2020
“The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Mode-S number of the aircraft, a 24-bit identifier assigned to all aircraft and transmitted by the on-board transponder, was AE01CE.
“At some point, the Aircraft’s Mode-S number suddenly changed from AE01CE to 750548.
“That is the ICAO number for an unknown Malaysian aircraft. The RC-135W, call sign RAINY51, then flew on a racing circuit between Hainan Island and the Paracel Islands, an archipelago in the South China Sea that China claims, but whose ownership is in dispute, “the publication added. U.S.
He also noted that the ICAO numbers are not supposed to be changed as that degrades overall confidence in the system.
The RC-135W Rivet Joint is a converted Boeing 707 aircraft designed to collect electronic intelligence for later analysis.
It is also unclear why the RC-135W participated in the hoax, it reported. Popular mechanics.
“If reconnaissance is occurring outside sovereign airspace, there is no urgent need to engage in that kind of deception,” he quoted Steffan Watkins, a Canadian open source intelligence researcher.
“It is perfectly legal and is done in full view of the coasts of Russia, Syria and Crimea all the time,” Watkins added.
The South Sea Probing Initiative is a China-based think tank whose advisory board includes serving officers from the People’s Liberation Army and the Chinese Navy.
His announcement on Twitter was “probably a warning to the Pentagon that the Chinese military sees through deception and is watching bystanders,” Popular Mechanics said.
The star He has contacted the US Embassy, the Ministry of Defense and Wisma Putra, and will report any updates.
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