207 Sorties: How PLA Justice Mission 2025 Taiwan Drills Test Air Defenses
China's Justice Mission 2025 drills involved a record-breaking 207 sorties. Analysts say the PLA is testing 'inexpensive' ways to exhaust Taiwan's air defenses.
The sky over the Taiwan Strait just got more crowded. China's Eastern Theatre Command concluded a massive two-day live-fire exercise named 'Justice Mission 2025' on December 30, 2025. This drills-to-siege operation came less than two weeks after the United States approved an $11.1 billion weapons package for Taiwan—the largest in the island's history.
Record Scale of PLA Justice Mission 2025 Taiwan Drills
The scale of this exercise dwarfs previous operations. According to Taiwan's defense ministry, they detected a staggering 207 sorties by PLA aircraft. To put that in perspective, it's significantly higher than the 135 detected in April 2024 and 153 in October 2024. Of those flights, 125 crossed the unofficial median line of the Taiwan Strait. On the water, 31 warships and 16 coastguard vessels maintained a tight perimeter around the island.
The Strategy of Economic Attrition
Military observers suggest the PLA isn't just practicing combat; they're testing how to wear down Taiwan's defenses using "inexpensive" rockets. These systems are cheap enough to be deployed in massive quantities, potentially forcing Taiwan to use up its limited supply of sophisticated and expensive interceptor missiles. By utilizing a mix of stealth fighters and high-volume rocket launchers, Beijing's testing a blueprint for an asymmetric siege that targets the island's defense budget as much as its military hardware.
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