Hong Kong (CNN) Australian military helicopters were targeted with lasers during operations in the South China Sea this month.

"Some helicopter pilots had lasers pointed at them from passing fishing vessels," Euan Graham of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute wrote on The Strategist blog, who was aboard the warship from which the aircraft were operating.

Graham told CNN he did not witness the incidents, but Australian pilots told him they were targeted multiple times by commercial lasers during South China Sea missions.

Graham was aboard HMAS Canberra, a helicopter landing dock and flagship of the Royal Australian Navy, as it operated in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean on a three-month mission that ended this week.

Australian forces across the region have noticed the increased use of lasers, an Australian Defense Department spokesperson said in a statement.