7th Fleet Sees Red (Or Rather, Doesn't See It At All)

Go read this over here and then come back.

Finished? Right, so, question. How did a Soviet built submarine, technology which we've spent untold billions or trillions of dollars and nearly 50 years targeting and overcoming, get inside the defensive perimeter of a Carrier Battle Group? How in God's name was a Chinese submarine allowed to surface within 5 miles of one of our most expensive national assets and was only discovered because an air patrol just happened to spot it on the surface?

Now, I'm not an expert on naval practices while on deployment in the Western Pacific. I don't know the 'protocol' whilst patrolling off the coast of our largest military adversary. But if I were a betting man, I would place my money on a newfangled technology called 'sonar'. This 'sonar' works like radar, only underwater. It allows a ship to 'see' an enemy before that enemy has the chance to sink a half a trillion dollar aircraft carrier and 5000 men. I would probably have this 'sonar' TURNED THE FUCK ON whenever I was deployed and on active patrol.

The only thing missing from this encounter was a giant red bullseye target painted on the USS Kitty Hawk. Where the fuck were the ASW screens? These destroyers and helicopters and cruisers are supposed to detect and destroy enemy submarines BEFORE they get anywhere near the Carrier. And actually, there is supposed to be an attack submarine with the group who's sole purpose is to engage enemy subs. I just checked and as far as I can tell there is no attack sub assigned to Strike Group 06.

I would also like to point out that the Kitty Hawk and her battle group are forward deployed and just recently participated in a major exercise called Valiant Shield. From Globalsecurity.org: "One of the main events of Kitty Hawk’s summer underway period will be Exercise Valiant Shield, which will see two other aircraft carrier strike groups as well as U.S. Air Force assets join up with Kitty Hawk to conduct exercises near the Northern Marianas Islands. The purpose of the exercise is to demonstrate the continuing ability of the U.S. military to project strength on the high seas." And then.... oops! She was sunk by a Soviet era piece of technology. Good example of being able to project strength on the high seas!

Isn't this situation the EXACT scenario that we constructed our ships for, trained our men for and drilled for? The only difference is the nationality of the people crewing the sub that beat us. I think we should stop our official policy of trying to be nice and friendly to the Chinese military by showing them our top secret command centers and instead focus on blowing them out of the fucking water when the shit hits the fan sometime in the future.

Technorati: ChrisCam, webcam, Weblog, Blog, China/a>, 7th Fleet, USS Kitty Hawk, Cold War, Military, War With China

As told by Christo on November 13, 2006 @ 10:01

 FILED UNDER: Politico , Red Storm , Shaking Head in Disbelief
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