A Chinese military vessel has been accused of putting Australian Defence Force lives in danger after a laser was shone at a maritime aircraft just north of Australia.

Defence says the incident occurred at 12:35am on Thursday, when an RAAF P-8A Poseidon detected a military-grade laser illuminating the aircraft while in flight.

Up to 10 personnel were on board the aircraft when the incident occurred. 

The Department of Defence says the Chinese vessel, in company with another People's Liberation Army-Navy ship, was sailing east through the Arafura Sea at the time.

Both Chinese ships have since transited through the Torres Strait and are in the Coral Sea.

In a statement, Defence said it strongly condemned "the unprofessional and unsafe military conduct".

"These actions could have endangered the safety and lives of the ADF personnel," the statement said.

"Such actions are not in keeping with the standards we expect of professional militaries.

"Acts like this have the potential to endanger lives."

Senior military figures have privately described the PLA-N conduct as "appalling".

Defence Headquarters Joint Operations Command released a storyboard of the incident, which showed the ships' passage into the Arafura Sea and through the Torres Strait into the Coral Sea.

The storyboard shows the two Chinese vessels had been observed by the ADF six times in five days, including south of the Indonesian island of Java, in the Timor and Arafura seas and finally, passing through Torres Strait.

It is not the first time that lasers have been used against ADF aircraft.

In 2019, the ABC revealed that hand-held lasers were increasingly being used against ADF assets, with military insiders blaming small Chinese maritime militia vessels.

In the most recent case, the incident occurred inside Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone.