Days before India was scheduled to carry out testing of its 5,000-kilometre Agni-5 intercontinental ballistic missile, China reportedly deployed a spy ship to Indian waters near the Bay of Bengal.
This follows the detection of another Chinese vessel near the Maldives and underscores China’s heightened surveillance efforts in the Indian Ocean region.
The Chinese vessels spying on India
As per data from maritime analytics provider Marine Traffic Chinese vessel ‘Xiang Yang Hong 01’ set sail from China’s Qingdao port on February 23. This curiously coincided with India’s planned missile testing, that was successfully carried out by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Monday (Mar 11).
According to media reports, two weeks ago, another Chinese research vessel, the Xiang Yang Hong 3, visited the Male port for operational purposes, as confirmed by the Maldivian government. Interestingly, its presence coincided with India’s announcement of NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) or a flight restriction zone over the Bay of Bengal.
Where are the Chinese spy ships?
According to a Lokmat Times report citing Marine Traffic, the Xiang Yang Hong 01 is currently positioned less than 260 nautical miles, or roughly 480 kilometres, off the coast of Visakhapatnam.
The other vessel, Xiang Yang Hong 3 as per the maritime analytics provider, is located at WCI-West Coast India. This position was accessed a little over 14 days ago, and since then, the vessel has been out of range.
What is NOTAM?
On March 7, India issued a Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM), thereby delineating a substantial no-fly zone over the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean region, effective from March 11.
This was done given the likelihood of a missile test from the APJ Abdul Kalam Island near Odisha.
Agni-5 missile
As per DRDO, Agni-5 missile is an indigenously developed missile with Multiple Independently Targetable Re-Entry Vehicle ( MIRV) technology.
Its flight test named Mission Divyastra was carried out from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island in Odisha. During the test, various Telemetry and radar stations tracked and monitored multiple re-entry vehicles.
“The Mission accomplished the designed parameters,” said DRDO in a press release.
(With inputs from agencies)
