PLA 4 Sorties on May 24 — 3 Cross Median Line Into SW/SE ADIZ; 6 PLAN Vessels — Post-Spike Pullback; 7 Days to HIMARS Deadline

Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense detected 4 PLA aircraft sorties in the 24-hour window ending at 06:00 local time (UTC+8) on May 24, 2026 — a significant pullback from the 16 sorties recorded on May 23 and consistent with PLA's established spike-then-pullback oscillating pattern across the post-summit period. Three of the 4 sorties crossed the Taiwan Strait median line and entered Taiwan's southwestern and southeastern ADIZ sectors. Six PLAN vessels operated around Taiwan simultaneously — a slight reduction from the 8 vessels of May 23 and well below the 10-vessel post-summit naval high of May 22. Taiwan's ROC Armed Forces dispatched combat air patrol (CAP) aircraft, naval vessels, and coastal missile systems in response as standard procedure. With May 31 now 7 days away — the HIMARS payment deadline after which the Foreign Military Sale procurement case would be automatically canceled under US law — pressure is mounting on the Legislative Yuan Finance Committee hearings scheduled for Monday May 25. The full May 2026 sortie sequence: 4→29→1→2→1→0→22→12→8→12→7→9→2→3→15→6→7→13→24→7→6→16→4. The pullback from May 23's elevated count follows the established pattern: the PLA typically surges to a multi-sector mass-crossing day, then de-escalates by 50-75% the following day before re-escalating again. The SW/SE geometry on May 24 represents a narrower geographic focus than the N/C/SW/E four-sector penetrations of the previous day.