Signals from Taiwan’s radar stations were jammed for as long as 20 minutes multiple times this month, raising fears that the Chinese military could be introducing electronic warfare into its arsenal of measures against the self-ruled island.

Former Taiwanese navy radar operator Hsu Geng-rui noticed the interference in Taiwan’s southwestern airspace when he detected a U.S. drone carrying out a scouting mission in the area on March 11. A Chinese reconnaissance aircraft was trailing the drone, which eventually flew toward the Luzon Strait to avoid the rival aircraft’s obstructions.

During this close exchange, Taiwan’s radar signals used to detect aircrafts in the southwest were jammed for as long as 20 minutes, Hsu said.

Another unusual signal in the southwest was detected on March 18, when Cheng Ming-dean, head of the Central Weather Bureau’s Forecast Center, noticed a wave in the area that he said was not a weather phenomenon.

Cheng shared an image of the event on Facebook that day and said that the source of the phenomenon was west of the centerline of the Taiwan Strait.

“This is not a meteorological wave. It’s very obvious!” Cheng wrote.

China has been preparing for electronic warfare against Taiwan in recent years, and the military aircrafts that have been intruding on the island’s airspace are often accompanied by electronic reconnaissance planes, said Chang Cheng, former chief engineer of the Hsiung Feng III missile system.

“Taiwan’s military cannot be careless,” Chang warned while describing China’s electronic warfare capabilities.

Chang added that if conflict broke out between Taiwan and mainland China, it would not start with thousands of bombs dropping, but with electronic warfare.

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said that it would use a combination of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to monitor developments in the Taiwan Strait but declined to comment on matters involving radar jamming.

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