Taiwan was caught off-guard when French Mistral-class helicopter carrier Dixmude was underway off its eastern coast earlier this month.
By Simon Ghesquiere/Marine Nationale (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
The French warship was spotted by a RoCAF C-130 on May 7 around 40km off Hualien and a RF-5E was immediately scrambled to collect imagery of the ship.
On the same day, French La Fayette-class frigate Aconit was detected on the Taiwan Strait heading north at 20kts. Both French ships were actually heading towards Japan for exercises with the JMSDF.
The Taiwan military was embarrassed by the incident as the island was conducting the first stage of its Han Kuang No. 31 war games during this period and both foreign warships went undetected for half-a-day.