Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yesterday]

funny...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=492804&in_page_id=1811

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.


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.


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.

[Tony_Balony]

Yea, thats a good story. The Cole was taken out by a Zodiac. A few years ago Indian and US planes had a mock battle, the Indians won 95% of the time.

[cangel]

No layman knows more about the military than good old Tom Clancy. He's addressed this topic in a few of his non-fiction books. Often when conducting war games with other countries, the US Navy and it's subs will often use noise emmiters to level the field. Not saying this is the case in any of the above mentioned situations, but just a possibility. Secondly, a sub, even a noisy diesel sub, could sit undetected on the sea floor and then make a surprise surfacing. Not much one can do about that. However, I highly doubt in a real war situation, the Navy would not be sonar mapping the sea floor when moving into hostile areas.

[pkang0202]

Article has some misleading information.

First off, the USS Kitty Hawk is a 1950's/1960's era Aircraft carrier. That carrier and its strike group are very old and NOT representative of current US naval superiority (aka Nimitz and Ford class Super Carriers). In fact, the Kitty Hawk is the last of its breed. The rest of that line of carriers have been decommissioned.


Despite China's military advances, they are still decades away from the US's military technology. What point is having a large military when your enemy can hit you harder, faster, and from further away?

[merkurix]

[RACETRAITOR]

According to my friends in the service, the Kitty Hawk is better known by its name City Hawk, as pronounced by the Chinese guy on South Park.

[SeoulFinn]

This was done on purpose. They knew where the sub was the moment it left the shipyard. Now the NAVY can ask more funding to be prepared for this new threat.