According to a report by Huanqiu.com, the Chinese Coast Guard successfully salvaged the AN/SSQ-53G passive sonar buoy airdropped by the US military aircraft in the waters near Ren'ai Jiao. A few days ago, the Ministry of National Defense responded to the incident, saying that China firmly opposes the provocation of US warships and aircraft in the South China Sea, and pointed out that China's actions in the waters are completely reasonable and lawful.
The probe launched by the US military in the South China Sea this time is used to collect classified information such as the activities, tracks, and scheduled launch locations of PLA nuclear-powered submarines. In fact, the U.S. military consumes at least 160,000 such sonar buoys every year, most of which are thrown in the South China Sea. So, why choose the South China Sea?
This is because only the South China Sea has an average depth of 1,200 meters and a maximum depth of 5,500 meters, which is particularly important for nuclear submarines, which typically dive between 300 and 600 meters. In contrast, the maximum depth of the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea is not even 100 meters, while the exit of Bohai Bay is a shallow water area, and nuclear submarines are extremely easy to detect and monitor in these areas, and our nuclear submarines can only choose to deploy in the South China Sea.
Moreover, the South China Sea is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes and an important gateway for energy transportation. Control of the South China Sea is of great significance for ensuring energy security and unimpeded trade. It is not surprising that the US anti-submarine forces will focus on carrying out anti-submarine activities and monitoring in this area.
In fact, similar situations are not uncommon in the South China Sea. Many years ago, fishermen in the South China Sea repeatedly salvaged US military detection buoys. These buoys even have slogans on them that say "sonar without copper, fishing is useless" to discourage fishermen from fishing.
In fact, in addition to this type of detector, the most common type of "underwater spy" used by the US military is large unmanned underwater vehicles. The device has a high degree of autonomous mobility and can lurk in the target area for long periods of time. These unmanned underwater vehicles can not only carry a variety of detection equipment, but can even carry light torpedoes and perform a number of tasks including surveillance, intelligence gathering, target locking, etc.
The US military has been doing this kind of thing in the South China Sea all year round in the hope of using anti-submarine buoys and other technical means to monitor the movements of China's nuclear submarines and the military operations of the People's Liberation Army, grasp the deployment of our submarines, and achieve the goal of weakening China's maritime nuclear deterrent capability.
As the saying goes, knowing oneself and knowing one's opponent will win all battles, and as a weapon of a great power, the most important thing is concealment and maneuverability, and once effective monitoring of nuclear submarines is lost, the nuclear deterrence capability of potential adversaries will be greatly enhanced. Therefore, the US military has sought to pose an effective threat to China's nuclear submarines by deploying various anti-submarine equipment in the South China Sea.
Not only in the South China Sea, but also in the North Atlantic, the U.S. military has deployed a number of unmanned underwater vehicles to monitor the location of Russian nuclear submarines and submarine nuclear missile launches. The unmanned underwater vehicle tracks the movement of nuclear submarines by analyzing noise data and provides accurate target information for the US anti-submarine forces. These technical means allow the US military to conduct efficient surveillance of the nuclear submarines of potential adversaries on a global scale.
In addition to these anti-submarine operations, the US military is also a habitual offender in stealing hydrological data from other countries. According to statistics, the current demand for sonar buoys has increased by 40%, a significant part of which is procured by the US Navy. It can be said that some countries do not even have as much control over hydrographic data in their own waters as the US Navy.
The US military has dropped probes in the South China Sea this time, and most of them are "showmanship." According to the information disclosed by the media, the US anti-submarine plane knew that it had been targeted by the Chinese coast guard, but it still blatantly threw the sonar buoy into the sea, and did not even have a chance to start.
If the US military really wants to find out any intelligence in the waters around Ren'ai Jiao, it will definitely wait for the night to get dark and the wind is high, and quietly carry out the mission in a more secretive way, instead of being afraid that others will not know that he has come to the South China Sea, as is the case now.
This is what the US military is doing to show the Philippines, the Philippines has clashed with China at Ren'ai Jiao, and the United States has not made any response after the Philippines has been deflated, and there are now people in the Philippines who advocate re-communicating with China to solve the problem, which the United States absolutely does not want to see, and in order to fool the Philippines into continuing to stir up trouble, the US military has pretended to sneak around the South China Sea to vent its anger to the Philippines and show its attitude. However, this kind of low-cost, high-exposure operation, I don't know if the current Philippines will believe it.