Chinese Sub Pops Up Amid US Navy Exercise

One NATO figure said the effect was "as big a shock as the Russians launching Sputnik." 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 USS Kitty Hawk. By the time it surfaced, the 160ft Song Class diesel-electric attack submarine had sailed within viable range for launching torpedoes or missiles at the carrier. The incident caused consternation in the US Navy, which had no idea China's fast-growing submarine fleet had reached such a level of sophistication.

Comments

Simple solution:

[calebt3]

Time to spend a few billion $ on R&D for new submarines!

Re:Simple solution:

[Anonymous Coward]

Bah! I'm tired of all the naysayers! We had plenty of good--dare I say great--reasons to invade Iraq. The problem with our strategy was that no good reason was also true.

Re:Simple solution:

[Maxmin]

launching Tomahawks or Harpoons into the Yellow Sea/Taiwan Strait (take your pick) is verboten in the standing Rules of Engagement UNLESS clear, unequivocal PROOF of China's involvement can be found.

Okay, let's play through this leg of the game:

• OPERATOR: Sir? I have President Clinton on line one.
• PREMIER WEN: Wha? Hrm, uh, okay. You, off my lap. Leave. Now.
• PRESIDENT CLINTON: Premier Wen? It's Hillary.
• WEN: Oh, hi. Did you get the acupuncture balls I sent?
• HILLARY: Oh yes, thank you very much. By the by, we have footage of one of your attack subs firing missiles at several of my Navy ships...
• WEN: Oh, yeah? I had nothing to do with that.
• HILLARY: (rustles some papers, opens a folder marked "From: CINCPACFLT") Says here, "Type 039A Wuhan, hull number 294." Got some neat pictures of it. Did about $250 million in damage. Killed thirty-seven of my sailors.
• WEN: (sweating now) Oh, well, we sold one of our submarines to somebody awhile back. It was probably them.
• HILLARY: "Them?" Who's "them?" Surely you don't Thailand?
• WEN: Nope. Don't know, wouldn't tell us his name. Paid well, in advance. Middle-eastern accent.
• HILLARY: You're telling me you sold a military submarine to someone, and you don't know who signed the check?
• WEN: Listen, I have to go now.
• HILLARY: Wen, to return the favor, and just so you know it was me, I'm sending you a thank-you present for the acupuncture balls. No return address.

There is no plausible deniability when it comes to something like this. Meesh.

Re:Simple solution:

[Nefarious Wheel]

They don't have to fight, but if they can fix a hum-ve, cook, or for the slashdot crowd... keep windows running

Just...just kill me now...

Re:Simple solution:

[feepness]

For all those reading this where were/are on a submarine: can you find all the EAB manifolds between shaft alley and the watertight door blindfolded? Did you every try? Nah, but I can find all the EPS conduits in the jeffries tubes between engineering and the holodeck.

Re:Simple solution:

[jibjibjib]

The goggles do nothing!

Re:Simple solution:

[roguetrick]

People respect the MBA as opposed to Engineers and Scientists? Dear god I'm behind the times.

Re:Simple solution:

[gadders]

I saw a posting just as good on Digg once:

LOL!11! Subz are cule. Don't liek peopel much.

emblazoned on the conning tower

[Swampash]

"Got rice, bitch?"

Yeah Coincidence

[explosivejared]

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.

Can you say industrial esponiage?

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.

Yeah that's totally plausible! I mean it's not like the Pacific is this massive body of water that covers a third of the Earth.

and flashing on the USN radar screens

[commodoresloat]

"Hacked by Chinese"

Quite an achievement

[edwardpickman]

Given the amount of lead they use I'm amazed it could float.

Re:Quite an achievement

[RuBLed]

Good thing it did not dissolve into a date-rape drug...

No Surprise.

[bmo]

There are two kinds of seagoing vessels: submarines and targets.

--
BMO

Re:Carriers, so big, so beautiful, so dead

[badboy_tw2002]

Well, we have the airport, but the security lines are a bitch :)

Re:What better way than this...

[nick79au]

and if the Chinese invade London they won't have to pay the congestion charge since they're running a hybrid...

SEEMS THERE ARE A FEW CHINKS IN NATIONAL SECURITY

[Anonymous Coward]

One might expect that discovering a few chinks in the national security armour would be expected during an exercise.

Re:Why?

[Himring]

I have to wonder why the Chinese did this. Why tip your hand?

To make another killer sub movie starring [a chinese] Sean Connery! Duh!

Re:The Clinton Legacy

[PPH]

What do you mean by 'the Clinton Legacy'? Getting caught with one's pants down?

Re:The danger of diesels

[MichaelSmith]

Google 'supercavitating torpedo'

For a moment there I thought you wrote Google's supercavitating torpedo. Gave me a terrible fright.

don't worry though

[commodoresloat]

There's a trojan pre-installed on the submarine's main data drive.

Re:There are two kinds of ships....

[Anonymous Coward]

Submarines are boats, not ships. Like all ships, they can submerge, but only subs can surface. :D

Re:The danger of diesels

[catmistake]

I think they (the Chinese) only need stealth to satisfy their customers, such as the US Navy, so they don't give away positions when US submariners have General Tso's delivered.

Re:Why do the Chinese give away this capability?

[Anonymous Coward]

There is this account of a Russian attack sub tailing a U.S. super carrier, and the captain of the carrier ordering increasing amounts of speed to see if the sub could keep up. There was a certain sobering factor that the sub was able to match whatever speed the carrier could reach. Above a certain speed, the sub was going so fast and making so much noise that there was no longer any sub stealth involved, but there was a command decision about whether to go even faster to see if the sub could keep up. On one hand, the sub is giving up intel about how fast it can go, but the carrier is giving up intel on its speed, and the account was that the captain of the carrier gave up on attempting to outrun the sub to not reveal what the carrier could do.

An alternative theory on commander's decision to give it up:

Non-encrypted depeche received aboard carrier on SLF channel:
PLEASE STOP YOUR ENGINES STOP WE ARE HOOKED ON YOUR ANCHOR STOP THANKS MATE STOP YOURS TRULY YURI END

Re:What's that aphorism?

[Instine]

If you owe the bank a billion dollars and can't pay, you're both in trouble.