Report: Sub, sonar collision accidental

Report: Sub, sonar collision accidental

BEIJING (AP) - A state-run newspaper said Monday that a Chinese submarine's reported collision last week with an underwater sonar apparatus towed by a U.S. destroyer in the South China Sea was likely an accident.


The official China Daily cited Chinese military experts as saying that the submarine's collision with the sonar array connected to the USS John S. McCain probably occurred due to a misjudgment of distance.

No injuries were reported and the extent of damage to the sonar array was not immediately known.

Yin Zhuo, a senior researcher with the People's Liberation Army's Navy Equipment Research Center, said the American destroyer appeared to have failed to detect the submarine, while the Chinese vessel set its distance from the McCain assuming it was not carrying sonar arrays, according to the paper.

The sophisticated and expensive arrays are used to remotely detect the presence of submarines, mines and other underwater objects. They are connected to ships and submarines by cables up to a few miles (kilometers) long.

Although the incident occurred in international waters reportedly near the Philippines, China vigorously opposes U.S. Naval activity and intelligence gathering near its shores as embodied in the use of towed cable arrays.

Eyewitnesses to a March confrontation in the South China Sea say sailors aboard Chinese ships wielded a boat hook in an apparent attempt to snag a U.S. surveillance ship's sonar array tow line.

Military officials would not confirm the latest incident. China's Defense Ministry did not respond to questions sent by fax Monday while calls to its offices rang unanswered.

U.S. Pacific Fleet spokesman Lt. Matt Galan said Sunday that the multifunction sonar array attached to the USS John S. McCain was damaged Wednesday, but did not say how the damage occurred.

"All we know is that the towed array was damaged," Galan said. "There's some suspicion out about what it is, but that's really all we know."

CNN reported that the incident occurred near Subic Bay, off the coast of the Philippines. The network cited unidentified U.S. military officials as calling it an "inadvertent encounter" and that the Navy did not believe it was a deliberate act of Chinese harassment. The CNN report said the incident occurred Thursday.

Philippine Defense Undersecretary Alberto Valenzuela said the incident involving the McCain happened 125 nautical miles (144 miles; 232 kilometers) from Subic Bay in the northwestern Philippines, outside the country's territory.

The McCain took part in a military exercise in the Philippines and left May 22, the Philippine navy said.

Pentagon officials have said there were four incidents earlier this year where Chinese-flagged fishing vessels maneuvered close to unarmed U.S. ships crewed by civilians and used by the Pentagon to do underwater surveillance and submarine hunting missions.

In one of the most attention-getting incidents in recent years, a Chinese submarine surfaced just 5 miles (8 kilometers) away from the U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk and its escorts during exercises off Okinawa in 2006. It still isn't clear whether the sub had been detected.

The 225,000-sailor People's Liberation Army Navy already operates more submarines than any other Asian nation, with up to 10 nuclear-powered vessels and as many as 60 diesel-electric subs. A major new submarine base is reportedly under construction on the island province of Hainan in the South China Sea, and the navy is continuing to rapidly boost both the quality and quantity of its vessels.

Alex Neil, head of the Asia Program at the Royal United Services Institute in London, said the trend was moving toward more such incidents as China bolsters its naval power and territorial claims to challenge the U.S. Navy.

"We're going to see more of the same and the potential for a serious incident will rise," Neil said.