Six PLA Air Force Y-20 jet transport planes have been spotted north of Istanbul

Six Chinese AIR Force Y-20 jet transport planes flew west towards Serbia on Friday night via Turkish airspace, according to a website called Pakistan Defence, citing a report on Saturday, April 9, from The US website The Drive. The report said Evergreen Intel, an open-source aircraft tracking group, first spotted the Chinese air force’s large transport aircraft north of Istanbul.

The Chinese air force transport planes were later spotted landing at Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla International Airport. Reports say those transport planes were carrying Chinese-made FK-3 surface-to-air missiles to Serbia. The FK-3 is the export version of China’s HQ-22 surface-to-air missile.

The Washington Post previously reported that the U.S. government warned Belgrade in 2020 about the purchase of these anti-aircraft missiles. Serbia’s reported choice to buy the HQ-22 rather than the s-300, a similar Russian-made surface-to-air missile, raised eyebrows at one point, possibly because Chinese missiles are cheaper.

The presence of the six Chinese military aircraft in Europe was relayed by Western media on April 3 by China’s state-run Global Times newspaper, which said observers on Sunday said it could be the largest ever overseas operation of the large China-developed transport aircraft, demonstrating China’s strategic transport capabilities.

The Global Times said China had not officially announced the transport operation, but the paper had learned that the Y-20 jet transport aircraft had indeed made such a flight. China has previously used the Y-20 on several missions in Europe. For example, in June 2020, the PLA used an Y-20 to transport 105 MEMBERS of the PLA honor guard to Russia’s Victory Day parade against Fascism in Moscow.

‘Instead of just flying to Russia, this time so many military transports will fly from China to Serbia over several countries, and China will have to coordinate operations with relevant countries to obtain their permission,’ the global Times quoted Song Zhongping, a military expert who supports the Chinese government, as saying.