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By WENDELL MINNICK
TAIPEI — Only days after China declared an air defense identification zone on Nov. 23 over the East China Sea, the US Air Force flew two B-52 bombers over the area in what appeared to be a challenge to China’s claim.
A former US Air Force official is suggesting this was a message of deterrence to Beijing that the US is aware of China’s weak links along its air defense network.
Two separate groups control the coastal radar perimeter along China’s coast: the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and the PLA Air Force (PLAAF), said Mark Stokes, a China military specialist at the Project 2049 Institute.
The weakest link in China’s air defense network is where these two meet — PLAN’s Second Radar Brigade in Zhejiang province’s Cangnan City, and PLAAF’s Fourth Radar Brigade in Fujian province’s Fuding City, along the border of Zhejiang province.
This gap runs along the southern line of the East China Sea air identification zone.
China’s new zone is both “figuratively and literally a military ‘line in the sand,’ ” said Paul Giarra, president of Global Strategies and Transformation.
Read the full story at DefenseNews