A U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft was lased by a Chinese Destroyer earlier this month while flying in airspace above international waters approximately 380 miles west of Guam.
The US Navy say that the P-8A was operating in international airspace “in accordance with international rules and regulations”.
According to a U.S. Navy statement:
“The PRC navy destroyer’s actions were unsafe and unprofessional. Additionally, these acts violate the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES), a multilateral agreement reached at the 2014 Western Pacific Naval Symposium to reduce the chance of an incident at sea. CUES specifically addresses the use of lasers that could cause harm to personnel or damage to equipment.
The destroyer’s actions were also inconsistent with a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between U.S. Department of Defense and the Ministry of National Defense of the PRC regarding rules of behavior for safety of air and maritime encounters. The laser, which was not visible to the naked eye, was captured by a sensor onboard the P-8A. Weapons-grade lasers could potentially cause serious harm to aircrew and mariners, as well as ship and aircraft systems.”
U.S Navy aircraft routinely fly in the Philippine Sea and have done so for many years. According to the U.S Navy:
“U.S. Navy aircraft and ships will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows. U.S. 7th Fleet is the largest numbered fleet in the world, and with the help of 35 other maritime-nation allies and partners, the U.S. Navy has operated in the Indo-Pacific region for more than a century, providing credible, ready forces to help preserve peace and prevent conflict.”
The Poseidon should have returned the favour and got an active radar lock onto the destroyer. Not sure if the Poseidon was armed with harpoon or LRASM or not?
There is definate tension between the Chinese Navy and US Navy.
It seems to me that even in the darkest days of the Cold War NATO and the Soviet Union stuck to the rules – there were accidents and plenty of tense moments, but I am not aware of there being this kind of deliberate agression. Of course it might of been well covered up with both sides participating in the missinformation, but things have changed on the international stage and not for the best. Nations are increasingly ignoring or stretching the rule of law which greatly increases the risk of unintentional / accidental escalation which could be difficult to row back from.
Hi folks hope all are well.
Let’s face ir China does not care about international law, they will certainly not worry about the reaction of the professional US Navy’s approach to managing tence flash points. The attitude is they have plenty of disposable assets, including Chinese navel personell.
Best wishes to all
George
You are right George, China has absolutely no respect whatsoever for International law! They operate on the basis of ‘we’ll do what we like, what exactly are you going to do about it?’ On the pretext that nobody will do anything at all………..
Hi George,
Clearly China does not respect international law as demonstrated by their illegal ‘building’ new islands in the South China Sea to lay claim to international waters.
My point was that it is not just China that is ignoring the rules, Iran, North Korea and Russia are pretty roguish on an on-going basis and others seem willing step well outside of reasonable behaviour when it suits them. The situation is not helped by many of these states making use of non-state proxy players enabling said rogue states to push the boundaries in a deniable manner. In short, the geopolitical landscape is getting more and more complex.
Just to clarify I am using Complex in the Systems Thinking manner here i.e. a complex system is a complicated system that cannot be fully observed or understand. In other words a complex system is indeterminate.
Do you mean the Danish, French, German and Dutch fishermen saying they are entitled to fish in British waters and do not recognise British maritime territory? Yes agree dangerous times ahead.
Er, no. That is private citizens breaking the law and is a matter for the courts, if it ever got that far…
I was referring to the increasingly overt amoral and illegal behaviours of nation states, including their funding and direction of non-state players. Some countries have always operated close to the limits (whilst being covertly beyond the limits). However, countries are increasingly openly operating out side of the terms of agreed treaties and international law to which they have signed and then simply deny their actions and/or ignore the fall out e.g. the Novichok attack in Salisbury (there were similar attacks in the past such as the attack on Geogri Markov in 1978 which was highly targetted). This demonstrates a significant change in behaviour and crucially attitude.
It seems that attitudinally the leaders no long care what people or other nations think. Leaders think they are above the law and frankily with the exception of the Serbian Leadership in Bosnia in the ’90s and the Taliban in the ’00s they are probably right. In the latter case the Taliban have hung on in there inflicting enough pain to ensure their survival and seriously undermine the case for taking direct action! Further encouraging roguish behaviour and an apparent sense invulnerability.
The US has finally lost patience with the situation, at least in part, as their recent actions in Iran demonstrate which, whilst entirely understandable, is a further destabilising step. This will be especially true if the US does not apply the new approach in some sort of ‘readable’ manner so that other countries can at least have a chance of making some kind of ‘calculation’ before acting.
In short, the rules of the geopolitical ‘game’ are in a state of flux which appears to be accelerating and spreading. Those who think they are above the law or beyond retribution may feel they have the self appointed right to write the new rule book to suit their own interests thinking the West will always back down.
It won’t. History tells us that Democracies are slow to anger but once they hit the limits they can rally around the ‘flag’ with considerable resolution (e.g. WW2 and for the UK the Falklands). All of which greatly increases the risk of miscalculation.
This is the context in which the recently announced Defence, Security and Foreign Policy Review is taking place. If it looks inward based on past ‘norms’ it’ll be another missed opportunity at best, if it looks outward, honestly, then we might get something sensible out of it. Perhaps the deployment of soft power to try and slow or limit the destabilising tendencies around us whilst we start to re-build our hard power.
I ain’t holding me breath… so the risks may well continue to rise for the sake of political expediency and short termism. We’ll see.
is it bad that bodyhair removal keeps coming to mind? the Chinese must have a clinic down there..