1986 Crosswind Sea Incident

The 1986 Crosswind Sea Incident was an aerial skirmish between the Yamatai Imperial Navy and the People's Air Force of Dai Hoa over the Crosswind Sea, about 12 nautical miles off the Dai Hoa coast. After the Yamataian spy vessel Sugo Maru was detected by Dai Hoa, carrier-based fighter aircraft from the Yamataian aircraft carrier Hotaru were dispatched to cover the spy vessel's escape from Hoaian waters. The Yamataian fighters were engaged by six Hoaian fighters, with 4 Hoaians and 1 Yamataian aircraft shot down in the ensuing aerial combat. The Sugo Maru successfully escaped Hoaian waters.

In 1985, U Myint Min succeeded Doan Hung Dung as President of Dai Hoa and began pursuing an aggressive foreign policy, aiming to create a secondary socialist sphere in the Crosswind Sea region. The U Myint regime also began expressing a desire to invade the Song Republic, which Dai Hoa was technically at war with due to the inconclusive end of the Dai Hoa Unification War. At the time, the Song Republic was a HECO ally and was valued as an anti-socialist "outpost" in the Crosswind region, and was also considered key to keeping the sea lanes through the Crosswind Sea open for Western Escaric use. HECO thus often provided military support for the Song Republic.

As part of the wider Escaric Divide, the Yamataian Imperial Security Agency routinely carried out surveillance operations against Dai Hoa. Some surveillance was carried out by spy ships disguised as fishing vessels, of which one of the vessels was the Sugo Maru, a converted fishing trawler. The Sugo Maru often operated off the Dai Hoa-Liang coast, intercepting military communications from both socialist countries.

In May 1986, the Yamataian aircraft carrier Hotaru was carrying out a freedom of navigation patrol through the Crosswind Sea as a show of force in support of the Song Republic. On May 6, the Dai Hoa People's Air Force sent two MiG-28 fighters to harass a pair of carrier-based fighters from the Hotaru flying combat air patrol. The Hoaians were driven away without incident.

At roughly 3 PM on May 16, the Sugo Maru detected a large amount of radio traffic indicating that they had been discovered. The vessel quickly began moving out of Dai Hoa territorial waters, but detected two aircraft headed towards its position and contacted the Hotaru for assistance. Two fighters were sent to cover the Sugo Maru's retreat. It was quickly discovered that there were actually four MiG-28s flying in close formation, with two of the Hoaian fighters loaded with anti-ship missiles. The other two fighters were equipped for air-to-air combat, and quickly engaged the Yamataian fighters.

Several minutes into the engagement, one of the Yamataian T-14s was shot down, though pilot 1JO Nakamura Yuichi and WSO 2JO Kusunoki Taiten were able to eject safely and were later rescued by helicopter. The remaining T-14, flown by 2JO Tochi Hiroki, was able to fend off the MiG-28s for several minutes until the standby fighter, flown by 2JO Morikawa Hiroyuki, was able to arrive. However, another two MiG-28s also joined the skirmish. In the subsequent dogfight, 2JO Morikawa was able to shoot down three MiG-28s while 2JO Tochi shot down one. The remaining two MiG-28s abandoned the fight and retreated to the mainland, and Sugo Maru was able to escape Hoaian waters and into the air-defence umbrella of the Hotaru's escorts.

Following the incident, tensions between Yamatai and Dai Hoa increased for several months. Dai Hoa lodged a formal complaint against Yamatai in the Ordic League for violating its territorial waters. Yamatai maintained that the Sugo Maru was a fishing vessel and that the entire skirmish took place over international waters. The aftermath of the skirmish is also believed to have contributed to Dai Hoa not committing to an attack on the Song Republic for subsequent decades until tacitly allowed to HECO.

The 1986 Crosswind Sea incident was widely publicised and captured the public imagination as it involved a "dogfight", increasingly rare in modern aerial warfare after the advent of the guided missile and long-range radar capabilities, as seen in the majority of air-to-air kills in the Kuijuan War. 2JO Morikawa and 2JO Tochi became national heroes and were highly decorated, with 2JO Morikawa's kill count of three enemy fighters never topped by a Yamataian pilot since then. A film dramatising the events was produced in 2003. Morikawa eventually retired from the Navy and became a test pilot for Mitsuhishi Aerospace, while Tochi remained in the Imperial Navy and was eventually promoted to Admiral before retiring due to throat cancer.

For thirty years, it was widely believed globally that the Sugo Maru was indeed a fishing vessel and that the Imperial Navy was protecting civilians. In 2016, declassified Imperial Navy documents finally revealed that the Sugo Maru was a spy vessel, prompting public outrage and a round of official apologies from Yamatai to Dai Hoa. In 2019, Quang Khởi Phong and Ân Đăng Khương, the two surviving Hoaian pilots from the incident, met with Morikawa and Tochi during a highly publicised meeting celebrating the rapprochement between Dai Hoa and Yamatai.