Germany has summoned the Chinese ambassador for a dressing down after it stated a Chinese warship, unprovoked and without warning, fired a laser weapon at an aircraft on a European Union military mission.
The militaries of several developed nations are developing and deploying experimental laser weapons, a non-kinetic and potentially cost-effective anti-air capability for blinding military aircraft and shooting down drones and missiles. Now Germany alleges China has used such a device in anger against one of its aircraft over the Red Sea in the text of a diplomatic protest issued against Beijing.
Per the German Foreign Ministry, “The Chinese military employed a laser”, endangering the aircraft and the crew aboard. Germany has made a formal diplomatic protest over the incident, summoning the Chinese ambassador to Berlin for a dressing down. The Foreign Ministry said: “Endangering German personnel & disrupting the operation is entirely unacceptable”.
The aircraft, which is a surveillance platform operated by a defence contractor, flown by civilian pilots, but carrying a German military team operating the intelligence suite aboard, was flying over the Red Sea as part of the European Union’s Aspides deployment. The purpose of the mission is the protection of civilian shipping by monitoring and intercepting Houthi missiles and does not, the European Union says, contribute to American-led strikes on the Iran-backed Houthis themselves.
Hellbound and Down 