Defence did not know about China’s live-fire exercise for 40 minutes

Military officials say China’s navy did not give them any advance notice before starting “disruptive” live-fire exercises in the Tasman Sea last week, confirming they were only alerted to the drills by a Virgin Australia pilot. Defence Chief Admiral David Johnston told Senate estimates that Air Services Australia were warned of the drills at around 10am on Friday, after commercial airlines picked up a radio broadcast from the Chinese naval task group. The agency alerted Defence about 10 minutes later — at around 10:10am — meaning it was only aware of the exercises 40 minutes after China’s navy opened a…