The USNS Impeccable is an unarmed U.S. Navy ocean surveillance ship. The U.S. embassy in Beijing has lodged a protest with China that on Sunday five Chinese ships, including a naval vessel, harassed the USNS Impeccable in international waters in the South China Sea. Read about the incident below and see photos of the ship.
USNS Impeccable
The USNS Impeccable (T-AGOS-23) is a surveillance ship that serves in international waters in the South China Sea. Her function is to serve in support of the U.S. Navy using passive and active low frequency sonar arrays to detect and track undersea threats.
Over the weekend the Impeccable was conducting routine operations about 75 miles south of Hainan Island when she was harassed by as Chinese Naval ship. There were five Chinese ships involved in the harassment. They included a Bureau of Maritime Fisheries Patrol Vessel, a State Oceanographic Administration patrol vessel, a Chinese Navy intelligence collection ship, and two small Chinese flagged trawlers. The ships maneuvered dangerously close to the U.S. ship, two within 25 feet.
The crew of the USNS Impeccable radioed the Chinese crews requesting safe passage to leave the area. The Chinese ships maneuvered in front of the ship and stopped almost causing a collision and forcing the Impeccable to an emergency stop. The Chinese crews continued harassing the ship, attempting to hook the sonar that trailed behind the ship. American crews turned fire hoses on the Chinese, who stripped down to their underwear and continued the harassment.
The incidents on Sunday were the latest in a series of increasingly aggressive and provocative incidents between the Chinese ships and the USNS Impeccable.
Earlier in the week, on Thursday, March 5, 2009, a Chinese frigate crossed within about 100 yards of the USNS Impeccable. Shortly after that incident a Chinese Y-12 aircraft conducted 11 fly-bys of the Impeccable and her sister ship, the USNS Victorious. The two unarmed U.S. data collecting and surveillance ships were subjected to the fly-bys that came to within a 100 to 300 foot range of the ships at an altitude of 600 feet. The fly-bys were followed by the same Chinese frigate crossing Impeccable’s bow again, this time even closer, coming within 400 to 500 feet of the U.S. ship.
On Saturday, March 7, 2009, the USNS Impeccable was contacted by radio by a Chinese collection ship. The Chinese accused the Impeccable of conducting illegal operations and demanding that she leave the area or ’suffer the consequences’.
These incidents, one after the other over the last few days, are the most aggressive actions any foreign ships have taken against U.S. ships in international waters. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing has filed a complaint with the Chinese government.
“The unprofessional maneuvers by Chinese vessels violated the requirement under international law to operate with due regard for the rights and safety of other lawful users of the ocean,” Pentagon spokesman Marine Corps Major Stewart Upton said in a statement.
“We expect Chinese ships to act responsibly and refrain from provocative activities that could lead to miscalculation or a collision at sea.”
This aggressive behavior on the part of the Chinese is disturbing. It is especially disturbing in light of the threatening and aggressive rhetoric coming out of North Korea this week.
When there is a vacuum of power, then there is chaos and all the petty dictators of the world will jockey to position themselves to fill the vacuum.
It appears that world powers are sensing an opportunity to push the limits of America’s patience. China, as a world power, and North Korea, as a communist state backed by the Chinese, seem poised to test the courage of the new American President. We all hope he passes the test. Most of us fear he doesn’t have a strong sense of the danger posed by these threats or will attempt to appease rather than stop the aggression with a show of strength.
We’ll keep up to date with any new developments.
USNS Impeccable - Photos
March 9th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Those of us who live in China recognize the Chinese Navy’s behavior as just normal driving behavior in China. It’s hard to tell the difference between harrassment and just normal bad driving skills.
All kidding aside, the media and your blog did not address a basic question - is there some dispute over territorial waters? Do the Chinese think their territory extends out 75 miles?
The US Navy handled this in the right way and they should continue to ply these waters. If they give an inch to the Chinese they’ll take a nautical mile.
March 9th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
“Conducting routine operations” was the same excuse we’ve been told 8 years ago except that was the E3 spy plane, and now 2 spy ships.
I’m wondering if any Russian or Chinese spy ships came with 75 miles of California coastline or Hawaii while giving us the same excuse we are giving the world, how would we feel and what will we do?
March 9th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Looking at those pictures of the USNS Impeccable I can see it isn’t a recreational yacht. Exclusive Economic Zones run out to 200 miles from a country’s coastline. No foreign surveillance ship, let alone a foreign navy one, should be making measurements or readings of some other country’s zone. How do the Chinese know whether that sophisticated US Navy ship wasn’t trying to tap into underground telephone/internet cables or placing monitoring devices in the surrounding sea?
March 9th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
so close. Only US dare do that!
March 10th, 2009 at 3:27 am
Well, of course those were international waters, and so the US have a right to be there. But the Chinese, too. And if they would chose to place a spy ship 75 miles off the US coast, I guess the Pentagon wouldn’t simply react by blocking its path, like The Observer correctly pointed out.
Btw, I noticed something strange about your pictures here: Two of them don’t show the radar dome on the mast, and several other installations seem to be missing, too. Google for other pictures and you’ll find that several seem to be redacted, or showing the ship in a very early configuration. This doesn’t look like the Navy has nothing to hide…
March 10th, 2009 at 4:14 am
One other point: The news reports say, Impeccable had deployed her towed array. Well, such a dophisticated passive listening device is mainly used by submarines and anti-submarine warfare vessels. Of course, you could use it for listening to whales, too, but we all know the US navy has a somewhat strained relationship with those animals. However, the purpose of the towed array is to locate even muted underwater noise sources from a huge distance, it’s not much use in finding reefs or wrecks. So, the not so hidden mission of the Navy here was to track Chinese submarine movements. One can only guess what the US would do if a similar Chinese ship would idle in international waters around, say, Kings Bay, GA…
But then, of course, this could much more discreetly be done by an attack submarine like the USS Seawolf. So, either the Impeccably is also up to monitoring Chinese communications and locating radar stations, and the Navy command doesn’t care about this being obvious, or it’s even more dangerous and this is an active provocation. Who knows what’s going on behind the scenes, we mere mortals certainly only know about the tip of the iceberg. But if something like the USS Liberty masacre happens, an act of aggression the US would hardly tolerate from the Israelis, but surely not from the Chinese, we may wake up one day only to find that this new cold war has become dangerously hot…
March 10th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Surely you don’t think for a second that Russia and China aren’t spying on us? They nestle in the waters around our coasts - we have a lot of coasts.
Remember when New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (then working for the Clinton administration) accidentally gave up nuclear secrets from Los Alamos to a Chinese spy? Even the democrats were mad at him about that. It only got forgotten because 9/11 overshadowed it - so ppl forgot about Richardson’s incompetence.
While ppl are busy pointing their fingers at the USA they overlook what Russia and China do. Everybody spies and everybody knows that everybody spies. But Gray is right - we only know the tip of the iceberg - if that.
March 10th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Obama is being tested a little bit at a time to see what his reaction will be. This is not a gutsy guy and his desire to avoid confrontation will eventually create unavoidable confrontation. And then, folks, the sh*t will hit the fan. When it does you can be sure you couldn’t drag him out from under the desk in the Oval Office.
March 10th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
I’m afraid you are right, Hondo!
I haven’t seen any reaction from him other than saying he wants to talk to people. Not our allies, of course, he dissed the British. But to our enemies. Oh - and he’s gone to Russia with hat in hand and asked for their help. That was pretty embarrassing. When he got caught, he denied he’d done it and then he admitted he had done it. Talk about going out of your way to look weak.
Other than that - he just keeps traveling around the country campaigning - trying to convenience the American people that we WANT to spend $1 TRILLION plus on diminishing our civil rights. Has he spent a night at the White House yet?
March 13th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
No doubt brave President BO will write an angry letter to the Beijing Times and threaten to send Barney Frank.
Its funny to see the idiots who make comments like what would the US do if the Russians or Chinese sent spy vessals to the US! Duh, they would never, never do that would they?
I mean they are pure of heart and clean of motive, right you Amherst types?
The US should have just sunk all of these ships and said we will not stand for such beahvior nor violation of the laws of the sea.
June 25th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
stupid american military, get out of our territorial waters!