Germany on Tuesday accused China of targeting a German civilian aircraft employed on a European Union naval mission in the Red Sea with a laser from a People’s Liberation Army Navy ship, US Naval Institute News reports.
In a post on social media channel X, the German Foreign Office posted that the Chinese military used a laser against a German aircraft operating under E.U. Operation Aspides, a defensive naval mission to protect shipping from Houthi attacks, and that the Chinese ambassador in Berlin was summoned as a result, “The Chinese military employed a laser targeting a German aircraft in the E.U. operation ASPIDES. Endangering German personnel & disrupting the operation is entirely unacceptable. The Chinese ambassador was summoned to the Federal Foreign Office today,” read the post.
Neither the German Foreign Office or German Defence Ministry provided further official details on the incident but Reuters, citing a German Defence Ministry spokesperson, reported that the incident took place at the beginning of July and that the aircraft was a multi-sensor aircraft provided by a civilian commercial service provider, which also involved German military personnel. The aircraft has been carrying out the mission since October last year with the data gathered being provided to countries involved in Aspides. Reuters also reported that the aircraft had safely landed at a base in Djibouti and has since resumed operations.
The German Navy currently only operates two P-3C Orion Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) as it awaits to transition to the P-8A Poseidon with the first of eight aircraft to be delivered in August.
The PLAN ship accused of carrying out the laser attack is likely from the three-ship PLAN 47th Chinese Naval Escort Taskforce, comprising of destroyer CNS Baotou (133), frigate CNS Honghe (523) and fleet oiler CNS Gaoyouhu (904), which deployed from China on Dec. 15. The PLAN has been deploying its naval escort task forces to escort and protect Chinese shipping in the region since 2008, in response to piracy from Somalia and has since maintain a continuous presence in the region with PLAN ships deployed on the mission also conducting other tasking and engagement along with its anti-piracy mission. In March, both Baotou and Gaoyouhu carried out the joint Maritime Security Belt 2025 exercise with Russian and Iranian ships in the Gulf of Oman.
On Wednesday, China Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning denied that the incident occurred, “After consulting relevant departments, we found that the information claimed by the German side is completely inconsistent with the facts known to the Chinese side.”, replied Mao when ask to comment on the incident during the Ministry’s regular daily press conference, according to a transcript.
Mao added that, “The Chinese Navy has carried out escort operations in the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters, fulfilled its responsibilities as a major country, and contributed to maintaining the safety of international waterways. It has also maintained good communication with Germany and the E.U. Both sides should strengthen communication in a pragmatic manner to avoid misunderstandings and misjudgments. China’s Ministry of National Defense so far has not issued any statement on the matter as of Wednesday.
China is not the only Northeast Asian country to maintain an anti-piracy naval task force in the Middle East, as both Japan and South Korea have also continuously deployed ships to the region, Japan currently has Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) destroyer JS Asahi (DD-119) and a JMSDF P-3C Orion MPA with Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) security element based at Djibouti deployed in the region while the current Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN) Cheonghae unit consists of destroyer ROKS Munmu the Great (DDG-976) along with embarked ROKN naval special forces personnel.
The PLAN has been accused in the past of lasering surveillance aircraft, in February 2020, U.S. Pacific Fleet stated that a PLAN destroyer lased a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon MPA which was flying in airspace above international waters approximately 380 miles west of Guam while in February 2022, Australia accused a PLAN ship of lasering a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) P-8 Poseidon MPA that was conducting surveillance on two PLAN ships sailing in Australia’s northern Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Operation Aspides is one of two ongoing E.U. naval operations in the region, the other being Operation Atalanta, which has a wider mission in countering piracy and protecting ships delivering aid to Somalia under the World Food program along with a number of other taskings. In a release on Monday, EUNAVFOR Operation Atalanta stated that it had coordinated and facilitated the rescue of the crew of MV Magic Sea by a passing merchant vessel, the crew had abandoned ship due to damage caused by attacks from Houthi small boats.
Both E.U. naval missions involve a rotational force of ships with the current Aspides task force comprised of Italian Navy destroyer ITS Andre Doria (D553) and Hellenic Navy frigate HS Psara (F-454) while Atalanta comprises of Spanish Navy frigate ESPS Navarra (F85) and Italian Navy frigate ITS Antonio Marceglia (F597) which is on the homeward bound leg of its Indo-Pacific deployment.
