Perilous Times
The uninvited guest: Chinese sub pops up in middle of U.S. Navy
exercise, leaving military chiefs red-faced
By MATTHEW HICKLEY
When the U.S. Navy deploys a battle fleet on exercises, it takes the
security of its aircraft carriers very seriously indeed.
At least a dozen warships provide a physical guard while the
technical wizardry of the world's only military superpower offers an
invisible shield to detect and deter any intruders.
That is the theory. Or, rather, was the theory.
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![Song Class submarine]()
Uninvited guest: A Chinese Song Class submarine, like the one that
sufaced by the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk
American military chiefs have been left dumbstruck by an
undetected Chinese submarine popping up at the heart of a recent
Pacific exercise and close to the vast U.S.S. Kitty Hawk - a 1,000ft
supercarrier with 4,500 personnel on board.
By the time it surfaced the 160ft Song Class diesel-electric
attack submarine is understood to have sailed within viable range for
launching torpedoes or missiles at the carrier.
According to senior Nato officials the incident caused consternation
in the U.S. Navy.
The Americans had no idea China's fast-growing submarine fleet
had reached such a level of sophistication, or that it posed such a
threat.
One Nato figure said the effect was "as big a shock as the
Russians launching Sputnik" - a reference to the Soviet Union's first
orbiting satellite in 1957 which marked the start of the space age.
The incident, which took place in the ocean between southern Japan
and Taiwan, is a major embarrassment for the Pentagon.
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![Kitty Hawk]()
Battle stations: The Kitty Hawk carries 4,500 personnel
The lone Chinese vessel slipped past at least a dozen other
American warships which were supposed to protect the carrier from
hostile aircraft or submarines.
And the rest of the costly defensive screen, which usually
includes at least two U.S. submarines, was also apparently unable to
detect it.
According to the Nato source, the encounter has forced a serious
re-think of American and Nato naval strategy as commanders reconsider
the level of threat from potentially hostile Chinese submarines.
It also led to tense diplomatic exchanges, with shaken American
diplomats demanding to know why the submarine was "shadowing" the U.S.
fleet while Beijing pleaded ignorance and dismissed the affair as
coincidence.
Analysts believe Beijing was sending a message to America and
the West demonstrating its rapidly-growing military capability to
threaten foreign powers which try to interfere in its "backyard".
The People's Liberation Army Navy's submarine fleet includes at
least two nuclear-missile launching vessels.
Its 13 Song Class submarines are extremely quiet and difficult to
detect when running on electric motors.
Commodore Stephen Saunders, editor of Jane's Fighting Ships, and
a former Royal Navy anti-submarine specialist, said the U.S. had paid
relatively little attention to this form of warfare since the end of
the Cold War.
He said: "It was certainly a wake-up call for the Americans.
"It would tie in with what we see the Chinese trying to do,
which appears to be to deter the Americans from interfering or
operating in their backyard, particularly in relation to Taiwan."
In January China carried a successful missile test, shooting down a
satellite in orbit for the first time.
