U.S. Military Using Private Contractors for Spy Flights over South China Sea

The South China Seas Probing Initiative, based in Beijing, is reporting that the U.S. military is using contractor-owned civilian aircraft to conduct surveillance activities in maritime areas close to China. According to South China Morning Post, the SCSPI identified three business-type jet aircraft involved in the surveillance, two of which are owned by a Mississippi-based company called Tenax Aerospace. The Tenax-owned aircraft have been tracked flying over the Western Pacific out of Kadena air base in Okinawa since at least early September. The think tank described one of the plane’s activities near China over a period of about six weeks as being “like a test to see Chinese reactions.” The third aircraft is owned by a company called Meta Special Aerospace, based in Oklahoma City, which has apparently been flying missions out of Manila since mid-August. Very little information about either company is otherwise publicly available.