U.S. Air ForceFile photo: An RC-135U Combat Sent reconnaissance aircraft.
msn.com/en-us/news/world/u-s-spy-plane-sets-record-with-close-flight-off-chinese-coastline
An American spy plane made the closet-ever run on China's coastal defenses on Monday, coming within 25.33 nautical miles before turning back, according to researchers in Beijing.
"The U.S. Air Force RC-135U Combat Sent was one of three American reconnaissance aircraft operating in the South China Sea, the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative "(SCSPI)—a Peking University think tank. Flight-tracking data illustrating the Boeing aircraft's route on Monday morning local time shows it having made a beeline through the Bashi Channel between southern Taiwan and the Philippine island of Luzon. The RC-135U, which gathers intelligence on radar systems, then makes a sortie toward China's southeastern coastline between the provinces of Fujian and Guangdong before turning back. The run took the U.S. spy plane within 25.33 nautical miles of China, according to Beijing-based SCSPI, which called it the "short distance" an American reconnaissance aircraft had reached the coastline, based on publicly available data."
