China sub secretly stalked U.S. fleet
A Chinese submarine stalked a U.S. aircraft carrier battle group in the Pacific last month and surfaced within firing range of its torpedoes and missiles before being detected, The Washington Times has learned. ...
... According to the defense officials, the Chinese Song-class diesel-powered attack submarine shadowed the Kitty Hawk undetected and surfaced within five miles of the carrier Oct. 26.
The surfaced submarine was spotted by a routine surveillance flight by one of the carrier group's planes. The Kitty Hawk battle group includes an attack submarine and anti-submarine helicopters that are charged with protecting the warships from submarine attack.
According to the officials, the submarine is equipped with Russian-made wake-homing torpedoes and anti-ship cruise missiles.
The Kitty Hawk and several other warships were deployed in ocean waters near Okinawa at the time, as part of a routine fall deployment program. ...
If I hadn't been worn out and already starting to come down with something when I posted the above I'd like to think I'd have been smart enough to question whether a Chinese sub really got that close to one of our carriers undetected. No self-respecting Tom Clancy aficionado should have fallen into that trap even momentarily and I'm sorry to admit I did. Don't miss the excerpts and links below the fold.
A submarine blogger's perspective
Michelle Malkin
Bill Gertz has a worrisome report today about a China sub stalking the USS Kitty Hawk. But one submarine blogger is taking it in stride. Retired submarine officer Bubblehead and his commenters weigh in with an interesting perspective:
[T]he Song-class diesel boat was spotted on the surface about five miles from the Kitty Hawk. So, either the Chinese were trying desperately to let us know that they could get that close to us, or this is another of a series of attempts by the Chinese to send their submarines farther afield where they just can't seem to stay undetected and/or submerged. Since they have nothing to gain by taunting us like that, I vote for the second option. ...
Any other submariners care to weigh in?
***
Reader Steve e-mails:
I served on a fast attack sub & I concur with the bubblehead who commented. It's no big deal. However, I am willing to bet that one of our nuclear subs who detected the diesel sub, alerted the carrier (and the anti-sub helicopters) and was actually tracking the diesel.
Steve Brock
USS Lapon SSN661
Reader Rob S.: ...
Chinese sub plays peekaboo with U.S. carrier
Allahpundit
Three possibilities:
1. A nose-tweak aimed at showing us — and India — that China’s capabilities are further along than we thought.
2. Another fictitious threat concocted by Bush to distract the sheeple from the things that are “really important,” like a modest minimum-wage hike.
3. A whole lot of nuthin’.
Where are our Navy readers? You’ve debunked this sort of alarmism for me before; you can do it again. Don’t let me down.
Update: More worrisome than the sub encounter:
[...]
Update: People are commenting that we used to stalk Soviet subs, and vice versa, all the time. Right, but the point of the article, as I understood it, wasn’t that China’s playing the same game now but rather that they’re playing it well enough to get within firing range of our carrier without being detected. Is that cause for concern? If not, why not?
Update: One of the boss’s readers e-mailed her this. Did Gertz’s sources feed him disinformation?
[T]he Navy will not generally comment on whether they detected the Chinese submarine or not. Any decision to do so would have to take place at the level of the Pentagon or higher. The reasoning is simple: you don’t want the enemy to know your vulnerabilities OR your capabilities. The only way to know whether this diesel sub was being tracked or not is to wait until we are at war with China. Even then you might never know since the poor, noisy thing would probably be at the bottom of the sea before it ever got within a dozen miles of a US aircraft carrier group. ...
Update: Reader Jason comments below:
I’m a nuclear submarine officer with extensive experience in this area.
This is less than a half-story, it’s a 1/10th story. We know almost nothing of the facts, and they won’t be released for at least 25 years.
Unfortunately, any submariner with any knowledge of why this is a non-issue will not be able comment in order to debunk it. Let the media have their headline.
