Chinese Sub Damages US Destroyer’s Towed Array Sonar
A Chinese submarine collided with an underwater sonar array towed by the destroyer USS John S. McCain off the coast of the Philippines, CNN television said, quoting a US official who said it was an “inadvertent encounter.”
The array, used to locate underwater sounds, was damaged in the incident, but the military official said the sub and ship did not collide.
The AN/SQR-19B Tactical Array SONAR (TACTAS) is a passive towed array system which provides the ability to detect, classify, and track a large number of submarine contacts at increased ranges. TACTAS is a component sensor of the AN/SQQ-89 ASW Combat System, and provides significant improvements in passive detection and localization, searching throughout 360 degrees at tactical ship speeds. The sonar provides very long-range passive detection of enemy submarines. TACTAS is a long cable full of microphones that is towed about a mile behind the ship. It is towed so far behind the ship so as to not let noise radiating from the ship itself interfere with the noise picked up from targets. Using that noise can determine exactly what ship or submarine is being tracked. The US Navy did not consider the event a case of deliberate harassment, CNN reported.
In March this year two tense standoffs between US and Chinese vessels in the South China Sea triggered accusations by the United States that China was behaving in an “aggressive” manner.
China later said a US naval vessel involved in the incident with Chinese fishing boats in the Yellow Sea had violated maritime law, and urged the United States to take steps to avoid a repetition.
Philippine Navy officer-in-command Vice Admiral Ferdinand Golez said they have no information on the alleged incident.
He also said that the USS John S. McCain was not in the Philippines and that Chinese submarines should not be passing through Philippine waters. However he admitted that the Philippine military has no equipment to detect such submarines.
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