What was the spy ship doing there in the first place? I'm pretty sure the U.S. would be pretty pissed off if teh Chinese sent a spy ship to find American subs, even if the Chinese ships remained in international waters.

Hello has anyone here seen any movies about the cold war?

Yeah, welcome to China v. USA: Cold War 2.

No nation in the world can challenge the USN on the surface. It's just not possible. The only country that would even stand a fighting chance is the UK; but even that would be a one-sided knock-out. So what did the USSR do? They just built a lot of nuclear subs. A lot of them. Then they sailed them everywhere they were legally allowed to, and some places they weren't; Canadian waters up North, or too close to the US coastline, et cetera. Then the USSR collapsed, and they decommissioned a huge number of their submarines. The rest are still in service with the Russian Navy. Or are they?

No, of course they're not. Dozens of SSNs (that's nuclear subs to you landlubbers) were sold to the People's Republic of China, who was looking to extend the same kind of naval control Russia was. Neither has a great tradition of building surface fleets or carriers, so they both defaulted to the cheapest (still hella expensive) means of naval superiority: Submarine sandwiches. Only these sandwiches... were deadly!

China has subs everywhere. All the time. They are sneaky. The only real difference between the USSR and the PRC's navy is that the PRC doesn't maintain any force in the Atlantic, because it's impractical for them. Oh, and I guess they don't have any retardedly large ICBM-carrying monstrosities like the Soviets had. "Hey guys let's build a football field... underwater. Also lets give it a nuclear propulsion system."

Why? Why would China sail these nuclear subs all around the Pacific, wasting money and nuclear fuel? Just in case. Larger nuclear subs serve as launch pads for theatre ballistic missiles, which are like short ranged versions of their intercontinental brothers and just as deadly. They can (and do) hold nuclear warheads. You could destroy every nuclear silo on the planet, and the navies of the world could still completely wipe out all life on Earth with the nuclear missiles they carry. Surprise, it's the newest great game!

China moves their subs around, and the US follows. If they find one, they send an official complaint, and the Chinese don't send subs to that area for awhile afterward. The US has to patrol the waters of the world to make sure the Chinese (or the Russians, they're still around) don't operate at their leisure. This is kind of serious. It's strong evidence that the Chinese were moving a number of SSNs through the area.

Seriously, how many fishing boat captains just decide to stand up to a billion dollar ship and know the most cost-effective and seemingly innocent way of disrupting it's communications? Move along, US Navy, nothing to see here.

Please don't nuke us, China.


edit: I'm not overly paranoid about dem chinese comin for our womens or anything, but pretty much every since the nuke was invented the US has had to police the world against another major power... just to give them a few minutes head start if a nuclear war breaks out. They don't tell anyone this because it's really scary but will probably never happen.

This is funny because you know americans would kick up a major shitfest if a chinese ship was seen in international waters but near the united states searchin for american subs.

This is funny because you know americans would kick up a major shitfest if a chinese ship was seen in international waters but near the united states searchin for american subs.

I'm guessing you just missed that big ol' post I made, but the short answer is that the Chinese don't have the resources to send surface ships to international waters off the US coast, but they do send subs there. All the time. And the US doesn't shit its pants. It realizes that they are doing the same thing the USN is doing to them. The commies have been sailing around off the coast for 60 years, why would the US have a heart attack now?

Theres a fuck ton of shit happening out there in the waters you don't here about unless it's:

A) A big fucking tanker being attacked by pirates (except in the middle east where pirating is ridiculous).

B) A fishing boat that either goes after endangered species or hunts illegally.

C) National security risks (RUSSIAN FLAG IN ANTARTICA, THE COMMIES ARE COMIN'!!!).

I read a world coverage magazine so I know a smidgen more about what happens in the seven seas then most people, but i'm sure Marcus can give us the whole shebang.

imo what Kaempfer said is basically whats going on.

I was told that the chinese might be moving nukes to Cuba, but thats really hear say and probably paranoid bullshit. China/Korea have those low flying planes,  Coast guard and PRC navy warships patrolling the area and if you're on a foreign ship and hit the yellow sea then they'll be on your ass in a minute. (unless of course you are a US/ally military fleet)

but really no-side is right. Its the US and Japan working together in that area hunting nukes and doing fuck knows all with korea and china moving nukes and doing fuck knows all at the same time.

If that's true, then China is trying really, really hard to either a) make an exact replica of the Cold War or b) prove it's better than Russia

Was watching a show about subs, you know there are 12 nuclear subs, swimming (right word?) in the ocean, which contain 24 (288 in total) nukes each? According to the show, they are so stealthy, no one knows where they are, except the crew on board. As Kaempfer said, these subs could destroy Earth ALONE.

Missile they use: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trident_missile
The sub: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_class_submarine

Added: This is for the US btw, so add on all the other countries with these things and you got a shit ton of nukes.