Daily Mail.co.uk November 10, 2007
When the U.S. Navy deploys a battle fleet on exercises, it takes the security of its aircraft carriers very seriously indeed. At least a dozen warships provide a physical guard while the technical wizardry of the world's only military superpower offers an invisible shield to detect and deter any intruders. That is the theory. Or, rather, was the theory. American military chiefs have been left dumbstruck by an undetected Chinese submarine popping up at the heart of a recent Pacific exercise and close to the vast U.S.S. Kitty Hawk - a 1,000ft supercarrier with 4,500 personnel on board. By the time it surfaced the 160ft Song Class diesel-electric attack submarine is understood to have sailed within viable range for launching torpedoes or missiles at the carrier. The Americans had no idea China's fast-growing submarine fleet had reached such a level of sophistication, or that it posed such a threat. One Nato figure said the effect was "as big a shock as the Russians launching Sputnik" - a reference to the Soviet Union's first orbiting satellite in 1957 which marked the start of the space age.
The incident, which took place in the ocean between southern Japan and Taiwan, is a major embarrassment for the Pentagon. The lone Chinese vessel slipped past at least a dozen other American warships which were supposed to protect the carrier from hostile aircraft or submarines. And the rest of the costly defensive screen, which usually includes at least two U.S. submarines, was also apparently unable to detect it. According to the Nato source, the encounter has forced a serious re-think of American and Nato naval strategy as commanders reconsider the level of threat from potentially hostile Chinese submarines. It also led to tense diplomatic exchanges, with shaken American diplomats demanding to know why the submarine was "shadowing" the U.S. fleet while Beijing pleaded ignorance and dismissed the affair as coincidence.
Analysts believe Beijing was sending a message to America and the West demonstrating its rapidly-growing military capability to threaten foreign powers which try to interfere in its "backyard". The People's Liberation Army Navy's submarine fleet includes at least two nuclear-missile launching vessels. Its 13 Song Class submarines are extremely quiet and difficult to detect when running on electric motors. Commodore Stephen Saunders, editor of Jane's Fighting Ships, and a former Royal Navy anti-submarine specialist, said the U.S. had paid relatively little attention to this form of warfare since the end of the Cold War. He said: "It was certainly a wake-up call for the Americans. "It would tie in with what we see the Chinese trying to do, which appears to be to deter the Americans from interfering or operating in their backyard, particularly in relation to Taiwan." In January China carried a successful missile test, shooting down a satellite in orbit for the first time.
Russian Jets Buzzed U.S. Carrier,
Moscow Media Report NewsMax.com
Thursday, Nov. 16, 2000
Russian reconnaissance and fighter planes "buzzed" the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk in the Sea of Japan after evading its battle group's radar systems three times in recent weeks, Moscow’s Izvestiya bragged. Operating in pairs, the Russian fighters made a mock attack on the carrier and took detailed photographs of the reaction on the carrier’s deck, Russian press reports said. The incidents allegedly mimicked similar mock attacks that often took place during the Cold War, the London Telegraph reported. "If these had been planes on a war mission, the aircraft carrier would definitely have been sunk," Izvestiya commented.
The carrier failed to scramble an F/A-18 fighter to intercept the intruders, the Interfax agency said, until a second pair of Su-24 and Su-27 planes swooped down on the Kitty Hawk on Oct. 17. Former Navy pilots questioned the claims. "I think this story is wrong," said one. "If I'm not mistaken, if the Russians had tried this during the Cold War, the E-2s would have picked them up far, far away and the boys (and I do mean boys) in the Tomcats would have greeted them well away from the carrier." More on this:
Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 10:57:55 EST From: MELUMAN@aol.com Subject: USS Kitty Hawk Incident The Real Story of the USS Kitty Hawk Incident Miscellaneous Miscellaneous Source:
Military E-Mail Published: 9 December 2000
Author: U.S. Navy F/A-18 Pilot Posted on 12/13/2000 17:32:15 PST by Spook86 Note: The following is an eyewitness account of the recent Russian "buzzing" of the USS Kitty Hawk in the Sea of Japan. It was written by a U.S. Navy F/A-18 pilot who was on the carrier at the time of the incident. I received this via e-mail from a military colleague who, in turn, verified that it came from the Kitty Hawk. It makes for interesting reading, and provides a remarkable account of the absolute buffoonery that took place during the incident. Comments in brackets were added to clarify or explain military jargon Flying **** :
-Cruise was pretty easy and interesting: 54 days at sea, 40 traps carrier landings, and 45 flying hours in the month of October alone! Yes, we flew our asses off! Since I'm one of three department heads with all my quals I fly a lot. Here's an interesting story (this is a no sh---er). I was on the bridge in line to drive the ship as there are a bunch of O-5s and a few O-4s earning our "coming alongside" qual. It's a gay shoe boy ***** where you give commands to the helm and lee helm (that's the throttle, dude) and you're actually flying formation on the replenishment ship during UNREPS underway replenishment ops. You do this under the close supervision of the Captain of the ship and the CDO (command duty officer--an O-5, usually the navigator or assistant navigator). Anyways, I'm sitting there bullsh-----g with my XO executive officer who is also getting his qual and we hear on the CO's squawk box a call from CIC (Combat Info Center). They said "sir, we're getting indications of Russian fighter activity." His response was "launch the alert fighters." Combat told him the highest alerts were Alert 30s launch within 30 minutes of notification.
The Captain got p---ed and said "launch everything we've got ASAP." I ran to the navigator's phone and called the SDO squadron duty officer. Our squadron didn't have alert duty that day, bummer, so I told him to find out who did and get their ass moving up to the flight deck (only Alert 7s are actually sitting on the flight deck, ready to go; alert 30s means you are in the ready room). Anyways, 40 minutes after the CO called away the alerts, a Russian SU-27 Flanker air superiority fighter--similar to a U.S. F-15 and SU-24 strike fighter, akin to an F-111 Fencer made a 500 knot, 200 foot pass directly over the tower of the Kitty Hawk...it was just like in Top Gun, shoes on the bridge spilled coffee and everyone said "H--y S---!. I looked at the Captain at this point and his face was red. He looked like he just walked in on his wife getting boned by a Marine. The Russian fighters made two more high speed, low altitude passes before we finally launched the first aircraft off the deck...a EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare aircraft. That's right...we launched a f-----g Prower and he ended up in a 1 versus 1 with the Flanker just in front of the ship. The Flanker was all over his ass (kind of like a bear batting around a little bunny right before he eats it). He was screaming for help when finally an F/A-18 Hornet from our sister squadron (I use this term in the literal sense because they looked like a bunch of f-----g girls playing with the Russians) got off the deck and made the intercept. It was too late. The entire crew watched overhead as the Russians made a mockery of our feeble attempt to intercept them.
The funny part of the story was the Admiral and the CAG Carrier Air Group Commander were in their morning meeting in the war room andthey were interrupted by the thundering roar of Russians buzzing the tower. A CAG staff dude told me they looked at each other and our airplan, noticed we didn't have any flights scheduled until a few hours later, and said "what was that?" Four days later, the Russian intelligence agency e-mailed the CO of the Kitty Hawk and enclosed pictures they had taken of our dudes scrambling around the flight deck, frantically trying to get airborne. I'm quite sure the f-----g loser shoe boy black shoe=ship driver/surface warfare officer in charge of our battle group's air defense was fired. It's also ironic that the Admiral's change-of-command occurred just a few weeks prior to this incident. Anyways, the Russians tried to come out a few other times, and we were more than ready.
I personally intercepted an IL-38 May anti-submarine wargfare aircraft and shoved my wingtip in front of his windscreen to prevent him from turning towards the ship (yeah, yeah we're friends now, blow me). In typical Navy Senior officer knee jerk fashion our entire airwing stood alerts around the clock as if WWII was going to break out anytime. This story was plasteredall over Russian and Japanese newspapers yesterday. The Russians even awarded their aircrew medals for their achievement. What f-----g shame! I felt like I was on the Bad News Bears and we got our asses kicked, and I didn't even get off the bench to help the team.
http://www.worldaffairsboard.com/naval-forces/10665-russian-aircraft-buzz-uss-kitty-hawk.html
0 Comments