China, which has made great strides especially on sea power recently, has achieved a record recently.

A Su-30 (NATO Code: Flanker-C) affiliated to the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theatre Command Naval Air Regiment broke an armed patrol record. The patrol flight over the islands and reefs farthermost from the mainland in the South China Sea lasted 10 hours. Successful completion of a challenging mission for both challenging for pilots and aircraft is said to be an indication that the PLA aircraft covers almost the entire South China Sea.

Pilots, which fulfilled their nutritional requirements in the air, solved the fuel requirement of the aircraft with the aerial refuelling method. Although it was previously announced that H-6 (NATO Code: Badger) bombers performed similar tasks, it was stated that such a long mission was carried out with a fighter for the first time. It is known that Beijing, which regularly makes military deployments on the islands in the South China Sea, has previously deployed J-11B, J-10 and JH-7 combat jets to the region. The longest task that China previously carried out with a similar platform was 8.5 hours.