Chinese Navy Deploys Anti-Ship Bombers and Surface Task Group to Counter Largest-Ever Balikatan Exercises Near Philippines
The PLA Southern Theater Command on April 30 deployed two H-6 bombers armed with YJ-12 supersonic missiles and J-16 fighter escorts over Scarborough Shoal, with Naval News reporting one J-16 observed carrying a YJ-91 anti-ship cruise missile. The PLA STC described the patrol as "an effective countermeasure to cope with all sorts of rights-violation and provocative acts." The surface element included two Type 054A frigates (Bayanner and Tongliao) and the corvette Hanzhoung, per Naval News, while a separate PLA STC group led by the Type 055 destroyer Zunyi conducted live-fire exercises east of Luzon. The carrier Liaoning has operated in the South China Sea throughout Balikatan, and at least four Chinese warships, including a Type 815 reconnaissance vessel, shadowed an 11-ship multinational formation off northern Luzon.
The PLA Southern Theater Command's simultaneous deployment of H-6 bombers armed with YJ-12 supersonic anti-ship missiles over Scarborough Shoal and a Type 055-led surface group conducting live-fire east of Luzon represents the most kinetically loaded signaling during any Balikatan exercise to date, moving beyond grey-zone harassment to explicit anti-access and area-denial demonstration. China will