Can We Call What China Did Against the U.S. an Act of War?
by Steve Berman
Aiming powerful lasers at American aircraft is a very serious attack.
The Pentagon has confirmed that American military aircraft have been targeted by a "high power laser" when operating near China's military base in Djibouti. The Washington Free Beacon published the news Thursday.
Pentagon Press Secretary Dana White said the U.S. government made diplomatic protests to the Chinese government over several recent incidents of laser firings near China's first overseas military base at Djibouti.
"These are very serious incidents. There have been two minor injuries. This activity poses a threat to our airmen," White told reporters.
The Chinese government denies the incidents, but the Pentagon remains confident that Chinese nationals were behind "more than two but less than ten" laser firings targeting U.S. aircraft recently.
This is not simply playing around, and if the Chinese military or government was involved, it could actually be interpreted as an act of war. In 2017, Air Combat Command published this warning about civilians using handheld lasers to illuminate aircraft, along with a warning:
“Illumination reports often describe several types of adverse effects,” according to Laser Hazards In Navigable Airspace published by the FAA. “These include visual effects, pain and/or possible injury, and operational problems. Operational problems include momentary distraction, disorientation resulting in another pilot assuming control, aborted landings, loss of depth perception, and shutting down a runway due to multiple laser strikes.”
In the United States, lasing an aircraft is a crime under the Code of Federal Aviation Regulations 14 CFR 91.11, which prohibits interfering with a flight crew operating an aircraft. In 2011, the FAA called for stiff civil penalties, up to $11,000 per violation, for anyone deliberately shining a laser at an aircraft.
The incidents in Djibouti--where China has established its first overseas military base--happened close to Camp Leonnier, where about 4,000 U.S. personnel are stations, according to the WFB report. The report also noted that the Chinese have developed several types of hand-held blinding laser weapons in the last few years.
I repeat the word: weapons.
Use of the weapons violates China's announced commitment to a section of the 1998 U.N. Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons that bans the use of blinding lasers in combat.
The Chinese have marketed four types of laser guns, designated the BBQ-905 Laser Dazzler Weapon, the WJG-2002 Laser Gun, the PY132A Blinding Laser Weapon, and the PY131A Blinding Laser Weapon.
Since two American airmen have been injured from the laser activities, it's not unreasonable that our government demand an accounting, and an end to this.
And...since our president claims such a great relationship and friendship with Chinese president Xi Jinping, it might be a good idea for him to ask ever-so-nicely that these attacks stop.
The laser incidents followed U.S. military exercises last month off the coast of Djibouti called Alligator Dagger. The exercise was canceled April 5 after two separate air mishaps, including the crash of a Marine Corps Harrier jump jet and a CH-53 helicopters, in Djibouti.
We don't know if the "air mishaps" were related to the laser incidents, but the correlation is very troubling. Essentially shooting down an American military aircraft kind of qualifies as an act of war. If China is cooperating so well in many ways with America, why would they be committing acts of war against our military? Don't answer that.
This is a very serious problem, and our government should respond forcefully.
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