By For some reason I have a hard time believing this was accident:
In what a U.S. military official calls an “inadvertent encounter,” a Chinese submarine hit an underwater sonar array being towed by the destroyer USS John McCain on Thursday.
The array was damaged, but the sub and the ship did not collide, the official said. A sonar array is a device towed behind a ship that listens and locates underwater sounds.
The incident occurred near Subic Bay off the coast of the Philippines.
The official, who declined to be named because the incident had not been made public, would not say whether the U.S. ship knew the submarine was that close to it.
However, the Navy does not believe this was a deliberate incident of Chinese harassment, as it would have been extremely dangerous had the array gotten caught in the submarine’s propellers.
The Navy has complained in the past that Chinese vessels, including fishing boats, have deliberately tried to disrupt U.S. naval activities in international waters near China. In one widely publicized incident in March, five Chinese vessels maneuvered close enough to the USNS Impeccable to warrant the use of a fire hose by the unarmed American vessel to avoid a collision. The Navy later released video of that incident. [CNN via reader tip]
Maybe some of you Navy guys reading this can comment how likely this is an accident or not? Maybe the US Navy needs to start having some “accidents” with some Chinese ships? So what do you all think about this?:
1:27 am on June 14th, 2009 1
Having spent 4 years working as a sonar tech for the USN, I’m just going to point out the obvious… there’s no doubt in my mind both ships knew the other was there. It was clearly an accident that resulted from a game of cat & mouse (without the violent intentions). The problem with writing about these kinds of incidents is that each has to pretend they didn’t know the other was there (well, sorta. In this case the position of the surface boat would be glaringly obvious to any Sub-surface sonar tech)… and of course the chinese sub being built the way it is probably wasn’t very well hidden to begin with =o
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June 14th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
The suggestion that the collision was intentional is ridiculous. Running your submarine into anything is a stupid risk to everyone on board.
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6:27 am on June 14th, 2009 2
Intentional or not, I don’t think we need to start harassing the Chinese. As the article pointed out, the sub risked being sunk by maneuvering so close to the array. A few years ago a Chinese hotdogger sent himself to a watery grave after tailing a US naval pilot too closely.
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10:19 am on June 14th, 2009 3
I was amazed that more of the people who stated that the collision was intentional in the poll didn’t comment here. I was really looking forward to hearing some of their comments which I’m sure would be hilarious.
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June 14th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
I would be VERY interested in reading what YOU have to say, in the way of explaining how two high tech vessils managed to attempt being in the same “space” at the same time. Really, I would! Entertain me please.
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1:05 pm on June 14th, 2009 4
Maybe the USN needs to accidentally drop a depth charge next time.
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5:42 pm on June 14th, 2009 5
I know. The American Military could ‘accidentally’ bomb a Chinese embassy. Oh, wait…
I sincerely think the Belgrade bombing was an accident. My only teacher for how naval sonar works was Tom Clancy, so I can’t say about the current event, but accidents do happen.
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wikipedia links to reports that the Belgrade bombing was deliberate so that one hasn’t been settled yet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_Bombing_of_the_Chinese_embassy_in_Belgrade
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6:34 pm on June 14th, 2009 6
I have to believe a lot of electronic eavesdropping was done on the part of the US in recording sound signatures of the chinese submarine.
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June 20th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
of course it was… why else would they be dragging a fish =o
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5:09 am on June 15th, 2009 7
Doesn’t anyone remember the past? Didn’t a chinese jet collide with a P3 a few years back? My memory is about as bad as anyone, but when you think the chinese won’t sacrafice a few of their own, you are thinking like an American (someone who values life). It wasn’t too long ago that china sent waves of sub-humans (chinese) in assaults against interlocking fields of fire and lost tens of thousands. china is a beast that Americans can’t understand too easily. A china threat seminar could really help start.
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9:43 am on June 15th, 2009 8
Good read and analysis on the incident:
http://www.informationdissemination.net/2009/06/cat-and-mouse-in-south-china-sea.html
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