A simulated missile attack was conducted by a Chinese submarine on the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier near Japan in October, a report said Tuesday.
Referring to American military sources, online news, the Washington Free Beacon said the submarine shadowed the U.S. carrier and was detected acting as though going to fire a cruise missile from a torpedo tube.
The U.S. Naval force has advised congressional staff on the matter, but to avoid inflaming relations with Beijing, the Washington kept the incident secret.
The spokesman for the U.S. Seventh Fleet, Commander Clinton said, “We don’t have anything to give.”
It is so unusual for U.S. military spokespeople to deflect questions of this nature to the top of the command chain. Wherein Clinton referred questions on the matter to the office of the United States Secretary of Defense in Washington.
The United States’ Seventh Fleet is based in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture. Arrived at Yokosuka on Oct. 1, the U.S. carrier Ronald Reagan is only the forward-deployed aircraft fleet which was later departed for operations in the South China Sea.
According to Washington Free Beacon, the incident happened on or around Oct. 24 off southern Japan, as the Reagan cruised from Yokosuka to the Sea of Japan with the company of several other U.S. warships.
The news service cited an unnamed defense official as saying the submarine’s presence set off bell alerts on board the Reagan on Nov. 3 and was unclear how long the alleged incident lasted. -Carl E.
A US Navy Carrier Task Force is regularly accompanied by two nuclear attack submarines (more depending on the level of threat) and an array of airborne antisubmarine detection aircraft. The picture you are looking, if authentic, shows a submarine surfaced which is a universal protocol for non-hostile intention. If that Chinese submarine remained submerged entering a moving defensive perimeter of the US Navy attack submarines, she would not have been able to take any pictures. Under the same universal protocol all submarines transiting Philippine territorial waters should surface and fly her country’s flag, signifying that they are in innocent passage mode. Since we do not have the capability of enforcing this protocol (or UNCLOS in the Spratlies), foreign navies transit our waters in any way they please. We only get to know of their presence when, sometimes, they make mistakes navigating and run aground at Tubataha Reefs.