Chinese Sub Pops Up Undetected in U.S. Navy Exercise

[CGowen]

When a Chinese submarine popped up in recent months undetected in the middle of a Pacific Ocean exercise, dangerously close to the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk, American military chiefs were left dumbfounded and red-faced, according to UK newspaper, Daily Mail.

When the Navy deploys a battle fleet on exercises, they take the security of the aircraft carriers very seriously. At least a dozen warships are used to provide a physical guard, and using advanced technology they are able to detect and deter any potential intruders.

By the time the Chinese sub surfaced, the 160ft Song Class diesel-electric attack submarine sailed within viable range for launching torpedoes or missles at the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk, a 1,000ft. supercarrier with 4,500 military personnel onboard.

According to senior Nato officials, the incident caused a sense of sudden fear in the U.S. Navy, as officials realized the seriousness of the encounter. The U.S. apparently had no idea just how sophisticated China's fast-growing submarine fleet had become, or that they even posed such a threat.

Reportedly, one Nato figure said that the effect was "as big a shock as the Russians launching Sputnik". The Sputnik, if you remember, was the Soviet Union's first orbiting satellite launched in 1957 which marked the beginning of the space age and kicked off the space race.

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http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/3540

[Ezlivin]

1. What the hell happened to our ASW?

We used to have something called Anti-Submarine Warfare. I know: My old boat was a frequent target of these exercises.

I suppose that after the Walker spy ring gave away our technology for making silent boats we don't have that edge any longer. A diesel boat operating on electric motors is a damned quiet boat, however.

Or our guys have gotten lazy since they haven't faced a real Navy in a while.

I wonder how surprised we'll be at Iran's missiles?

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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[Ezlivin]

8. I read it

I've been concerned that the idea that "America is Number 1" has blinded us to the capabilities of other nations.

It's ironic that our big budget science fiction movies (like Independence Day) show how little ol' humans can take down an interstellar bad ass, yet Americans don't think they can get knocked down (or out) by a "little" country.

Hubris is a bitch.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

9. and deadly.

I had read very little about the Millenium bullshit, but until recently, I did not realize that they "refloated" the navy. shit, can we do that in real time too? maybe ask for a time out?

[Flatulo]

2. American arrogance knows no bounds...

This reminds me of the people who were/are surprised and skeptical that dark-skinned middle Eastern men could hijack airliners and fly them into buildings.

The Chinese buy their subs from the Russians, BTW. They're ver modern deisel electric boats.

[RogueBandit]

3. We're falling apart

Graft, corruption and greed are causing this nation to fall apart. Such things have always been with us, but under Bush it all seems to have gotten much, much worse.

[Flatulo]

6. Nah, Bush has nothing to do with it - it's the natural ebb and flow of countermeasures.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. One word response. DUH!

Did they really think that just because we have big bad carriers, that no research was being done by China/Russia to counter the impact of our supercarriers? The carrier of 1945 represents the highest tech mobile concentration of firepower ever imagined. just 30 years before that, the plane was a joke. By 1945, air power was an important part of both land and sea warfare. The big tubs we have at sea were built in the 1960s and 1970s - in other words, they may be imposing, powerful and huge, but they are so yesterday that we should be concerned.

The Nimitz class, our most advanced ships at sea (the USS Gerald Ford class, costing fourteen Billion a pop, won't be ready until 2015) are now at risk of total destruction. If that does not scare the navy planners into some quick changes in postures, then we are in for some serious and unpleasant surprises when we attack China's ally, Iran.

Last year, I spoke to a former sub driver (nuke, attack ships) who until he retired, kept trying to warn his superiors about the Chinese developments. Their latest generation use sophisticated diesel-battery power, (meaning that they are virtually silent underwater), new advances in masking the electromagnetic signal of a sub, and stolen prop designs from US manufacturers (which have since been improved on). He predicted that the invincible moving island of your carrier task force was like a Maginot Line against the Panzers. And in the battle of old vs. new technologies, the new ones tend to be slightly better.

[Flatulo]

5. If you really want a chill, Google 'Sunburn' and 'Salmon' missile...

In the nineties, the Russians, realizing that they could never afford to build a class of carriers to counter our Nimitz-class, focused on counter-measures to take out these behemoths.

The results are the Sunburn and the Salmon anti-ship missiles. We have absolutely no defense against these supersonic weapons. Our carriers are toast in the first 30 seconds of a conflict with Iran, who have been buying these little gems.

The Dep of the Navy ordered countermeasures about six years ago, but so far nothing has come off the drawing boards.