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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| How China is masking drone flights in potential Taiwan rehearsal |
| 2026-02-27 |
| [Reuters] A large Chinese military drone has conducted regular flights over the South China Sea in recent months while transmitting false transponder signals that made it appear to be other aircraft, including a sanctioned Belarusian cargo plane and a British Typhoon fighter jet. Military attaches and security analysts scrutinising the operations say the flights represent a step-change in China's grey-zone tactics in the contested South China Sea and appear to be testing possible decoy capabilities in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Since August, at least 23 flights have been logged under the call sign YILO4200, a known long-endurance Chinese military drone, but the aircraft transmitted registration numbers of other aircraft, according to Reuters analysis of data from flight-tracking website Flightradar24. The flight paths often head east from the Chinese province of Hainan towards the Philippines, near the disputed Paracel Islands, and down Vietnam's coast, the flight analysis showed. Reuters is reporting the scale and complexity of the operations for the first time. The operations represent a new and elaborate element in China's expanding presence across the South China Sea and around Taiwan as its military responds to Communist Party demands to sharpen the readiness of its forces, according to three regional diplomats, four open-source intelligence analysts and three security scholars familiar with the flight data. The activities include exploiting electronic warfare and deception tactics in real time, they said. And while the masking is unlikely to fully deceive air traffic controllers or military-grade radars, it could sow time-wasting confusion in a conflict, conceal sensitive surveillance activity or be used for propaganda or misinformation, the envoys and intelligence analysts said. "We've not seen anything like this before," said Ben Lewis, founder of the open-source data platform PLATracker. "It's ... a kind of deception trial being carried out in real time using aircraft that are not exactly low profile. It does not appear to be at all accidental." China's defence ministry didn't respond to Reuters questions about the flights and their purpose. BELARUSIAN CARGO PLANE The flights have mostly appeared on Flightradar24 as an Ilyushin-62 cargo plane operated by Rada Airlines of Belarus but also a Royal Air Force Typhoon, a North Korean Il-62 passenger jet and an anonymous Gulfstream executive jet. Since mid-December, YILO4200 has also made several flights in northwest China, most recently on February 15 when it appeared as an anonymous Pilatus PC-12, a small turboprop passenger aircraft. Aircraft registration numbers stem from a coded so-called 24-bit address governed by the International Civil Aviation Organization. Broadcast via transponders, the numbers help reveal an aircraft's position, direction and speed. While unique to each aircraft, the addresses are publicly known and two pilots and two analysts say recoding a transponder to give it a different registration number is possible. Rada was sanctioned by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control in August 2024 for flying cargoes in and out of Africa that included Wagner Group personnel linked to the Russian military, as well as exotic wildlife trafficking. The real Belarusian Il-62 has been active throughout the period with a different call sign and was once airborne at the same time as the Chinese drone attempting to mask it, the Flightradar24 data showed. Rada Airlines did not respond to a request for comment and Britain's defence ministry said it could not comment. An ICAO spokesperson said the body does not comment on issues or speculation concerning specific member states. |
| Posted by:Skidmark |