Three People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warships were spotted transiting the Tsushima Strait en route to the East China Sea last week, as Tokyo closely tracks such passages amid heightened regional tensions.
The vessels were two Type 055 guided-missile destroyers and a Type 052D destroyer, according to Japan’s Ministry of Defence and Self-Defence Forces on Saturday.
The ministry said the Japanese force’s JS Ootaka conducted “alert surveillance and intelligence gathering” on the Chinese formation.
The transit marked the return of part of a PLAN task group that had earlier entered the Sea of Japan, which in South Korea is known as the East Sea, via the Tsushima Strait at the end of last month.
The Type 055 destroyer, designated “Renhai-class” by Nato, is a cruiser-sized vessel with robust air-defence, anti-submarine and surface-warfare capabilities.
The Type 052D was designed to match the US Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. It is equipped with advanced radars and electronics comparable to the US Aegis system, as well as a 64-cell vertical-missile launcher.