Posted on 11/14/2006 7:18:14 PM PST by traumer
The US navy has confirmed reports of a close encounter between one of its battle groups and a Chinese submarine in the Pacific late last month.
US Pacific Commander Admiral William Fallon said the incident had had the potential to escalate.
He called for better communications between the two sides.
He dismissed as rather sensational a report that a Chinese submarine had stalked the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk and its accompanying warships.
But he did concede that the Chinese vessel had been close, which left both sides open to the potential for miscalculation.
Admiral Fallon said that US forces had not been looking for submarines at the time.
But if they had, and the Chinese had stumbled into the middle of such an exercise, the encounter "could well have escalated into something that was very unforeseen", he said.
According to the Washington Times, the Chinese had surfaced in ocean waters near the Japanese island of Okinawa, a mere 8km (five miles) from the carrier group.
The paper said that the submarine had only been detected by a routine surveillance flight by one of the carrier group's planes.
Admiral Fallon said the incident illustrated why his colleagues want better relationships with their Chinese counterparts.
Exchange visits between the two sides were scaled down after a collision between a Chinese fighter jet and a US spy plane off the Chinese coast in 2001.
"Admiral Fallon said that US forces had not been looking for submarines at the time "
Nothing to worry about then - move on...
Too bad they weren't able to drive it ashore on Okinawa,
We'd have been glad to give it back, after the appropriate
apologies, of course they'd have to FLY it out.
Fallon is the admiral who delivered the apology to the Japanese after the submarine surfaced quickly and hit the ship with the students. He was the who bowed and the Japanese were very moved by it.
Admiral Fallon said the incident illustrated why his colleagues want better relationships with their Chinese counterparts.
LET'S GET ALONG !
whoever made that decision, should be fired immediately.
Better relationships? Sounds PC to me. My son is on the Kitty Hawk, this really bothers me.
I'm starting to think the Chinese could walk up to the Admiral.. spit on him, and get a handshake in return.
Hell, I'm starting to think they could nuke us and still no response from us.. wtf is happening to our goverment?
Why is the US Pacific Command in the hands of a senile officer?
when there is no force rooting this kind of stuff out - across all agencies and departments - it just festers.
"whoever made that decision, should be fired immediately."
Exactly! Whoever allowed a Chinese Sub to go undetected, should be relieved of duty.
Actually that's the party line these days. "Let's get along with the Chinese" is part of the program in the Pacific.
I hear that only 30% of what Walmart sells comes from China but maybe it's more like 90%.
For quite some time I have thought that any warnings that might be necessary would have been better served when our P3 was knocked out of the air years ago.
At that time the Chinese went out of their way to dishonor the United States, including returning the plane via Russia.
China is getting too big for it's britches. The message would have easier to serve years ago. Now that message will have to be delivered to an adversary that is growing more troublesome by the day.
I wish to hell we still had Reagan in the White House. Remember the fear he instilled in Iran and other terrorist countries?
"Admiral Fallon said that US forces had not been looking for submarines at the time'
What? Since when is a task force ever NOT looking for subs?
Yeah, and we weren't looking for Jap planes on Dec 7, 1941, but that didn't stop them from attacking us.
After reading a few stories on this I had this thought. Is there ANY possibility that the Chinese sub didn't know the fleet was there? Outside possibility, but!
Everyone knows it was Minesweeper Monday, not Submarine Saturday.
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