Quote:
Originally Posted by Evil Robot
So you probably heared about the five China flagged trawlers that surrounded the USNS Impeccable to protest it sailing inside the Chinease EEZ. What I was wondering, could it be possible that a sub "slipped through" undetected during the commotion? From what I know about sonar it could be possible that the engine noise from the trawlers would overwhelm the USNS Impeccable's towed sonar transducer.
Any Navy sailors here that can reassure me that we did NOT just loose track of an "enemy" nuclear sub?
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Just to clear up, were you talking about nuclear-powered attack subs armed with conventional warheads or deterrent subs armed with nuclear warheads?
This is just a public continuation of what has been going on between the Chinese Navy and the US Pacific fleet for years. Really not that big of a deal, which is to say we "loose track" of foreign submarines all the time, though we sometimes have a vague idea of where they are operating even if we don't have an active bead on them.
China's nuclear-powered sub fleet is many, many years away from approaching the sophistication of the United States. To give an idea, England's subs are at least 20 years behind the average sub we have on patrol right now.
The biggest threat to US Naval supremacy is probably the proliferation of numerous diesel-electric vessels that sacrifice operational flexibility for extremely quiet operation when acting on electric power.
The only thing that might be of concern is that the Chinese were attempting to capture the sonar technology (currently the most advanced in the world) by snaring it on poles placed on the sea floor.