2nd CCP Navy Flotilla Could Be Headed Toward Australia, Defence Minister Confirms
Udumbara
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The Australian Department of Defence and security agencies are once again tracking a flotilla of military ships belonging to the CCP’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLA-N) which could potentially sail into Australian waters before Christmas.
That CCP group consisted of three ships—a Type 055 cruiser Zunyi, a Type 054A frigate Hengyang, and a Type 903 replenishment ship Weishanhu.
Defence Minister Richard Marles confirmed on Dec. 1 that authorities were monitoring another PLA-N flotilla in the Philippine Sea, but further details about the size and composition were not provided.
The destroyer and frigate are pictured above in photos taken by the three ships sent by the Japan Ministry of Defence to observe the flotilla’s movements.
When the last flotilla made its incursion into Australian waters, state-aligned bloggers—with extremely close links to the PLA—published detailed maps of the task group’s course around Australia and warned that it would not be the last such mission.
“We maintain constant maritime domain awareness in our geographic areas of interest—South-East Asia, North-East Asia, the north-east Indian Ocean and the Pacific,” Marles told reporters this afternoon. “And in that context, we will routinely monitor the movements of PLA vessels.
Marles said Australian authorities were unsure of the flotilla’s motives.
“We do not have a sense of where it is going. But we continue to monitor it, as we monitor all movements until we know that the task groups are not coming to Australia,” the deputy prime minister said.
“We’re not about to give a running commentary on the movements of all Chinese navy vessels. But ... we thought that it was important to make these statements and to make them in the proper context, so that Australians can be assured that we are monitoring our areas of interest and we are monitoring the movements of the Chinese navy.”
