U.S. admiral urges closer China ties after sub scare (Reuters)

[Up2Late]

(Check out all the qualifiers the Admiral uses in his statements about this incident, very impressive.):evilgrin:

U.S. admiral urges closer China ties after sub scare

Tue Nov 14, 2006 12:39am ET139

By Mark Bendeich

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A U.S. defense chief called for closer military ties with China and for the two powers to shed "Cold War" thinking on Tuesday as he highlighted a recent naval encounter that could have gone wrong. The chief of U.S. forces in the Pacific, Admiral William J. Fallon, was asked to confirm a U.S. newspaper report of an uncomfortably close encounter between U.S. warships and a Chinese submarine in the Pacific last month.

Confirming the gist of the Washington Times report, Fallon said the submarine had been detected at close quarters by an aircraft carrier and its accompanying warships.

The Washington Times said the submarine had stalked the USS Kitty Hawk and surfaced within range of its torpedoes and missiles in "ocean waters" near the Japanese island of Okinawa. "The characterization of stalking an aircraft carrier is rather sensational and I think it's probably not close to being accurate," Fallon told reporters in Malaysia, where he is attending an annual meeting of Asia-Pacific defense chiefs.

He did not give more details but said the encounter showed why he was pushing for better military ties with China....

(More and page 2 at link) <http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-11-14T053914Z_01_KLR165309_RTRUKOC_0_US-DEFENCE-USA-CHINA.xml>

[Kagemusha]

1. It's probably only inaccurate in the sense the carrier moves faster

therefore this type of sub can't keep up underwater on electric batteries alone so couldn't have been trailing behind for an extended amount of time.

A more accurate characterization would be a man in camouflage standing up with a smoothbore musket pointed at you, pulling the trigger, and a little red flag reading 'BANG!' on it emerging rather than the bullet that could have shot you stone cold dead.

[Canuckistanian]

2. Sounds like a good policy, on it's face

Sadly, it will never be implemented with this administration.

[TheLastMohican]

3. The Chinese submarine surfaced

just to let the guy on Kitty know they are here. The super-cavitating torpedoes have a range far exceeding 5 nautical miles.

[Up2Late]

4. I was thinking they surfaced so that the Kitty Hawk would know that...

...they were not trying to show aggression, is that what you are saying?

Do you think it's possible that the Chinese Sub was following one of the ships, but then suddenly realized they were in the middle of a U.S. Carrier Task Group, so they surfaced to wave a flag of non-aggression. Could that be what happened, in your opinion?

[TheLastMohican]

5. Exactly

If the sub carried evil intentions the only thing those on Kitty would see is a couple of torpedoes going their way. This all looks like the warmongering cry we see from the repubs to boost spending on military (this time Navy).
You know them evil "chicoms" sneaking on our carrier group all of a sudden. /sarcasm off.

[One_Life_To_Give]

6. I doub't it was to show peaceful intent

Not unless they had received a clear warning to surface or be fired upon. And even then a submarine commander on a Diesel Electric boat might be just as likely to sit perfectly still on the bottom.

The surfacing was intended to send a message to the US Navy. No other reason for that boat to surface.

[lovuian]

7. Ya China is making a statement here

as well as the aircraft carrier...

[hogwyld]

8. This only proves that the carrier battle group

Is an obsolete relic of a bygone era. The Chinese are preparing for asymetrical war, while our current crop of idiots prepare for another battle of the Atlantic. We've already lost, we just don't know it yet...