David Axe
China has begin installing sensitive hydrophones on the floor of the China Seas in an effort to detect and track submarines belonging to the U.S. and its allies.
Lyle Goldstein and Shannon Knight, both highly-respected naval analysts, described the new listening system as “startling” in a recent article in Proceedings, a naval professional journal.
They claimed the “fixed ocean-floor acoustic array” is evidence that Beijing has begin to take seriously the incredible destructive power of enemy submarines—especially American ones.
China’s hydrophone system, which first appeared in 2012, apparently copies America’s own Sound Surveillance System, or SOSUS—an extensive network of hydrophones that helped the U.S. Navy track virtually all Soviet submarine movements starting in the mid-1950s.
The Soviets learned about SOSUS from American turncoat John Walker in 1968 and subsequently upgraded their sub designs to be quieter. In turn, the U.S. Navy enhanced SOSUS with better hydrophones and trawler vessels towing sensitive sonars.
At its peak effectiveness, SOSUS could detect submarines thousands of miles away. The hydrophone network was America’s “secret weapon,” according to the Navy—even when it wasn’t technically secret any more.
If China’s listening system is even half as effective as SOSUS, it could spell trouble for the U.S., Japanese and Australian navies, among China’s other rivals. The U.S.-led alliance’s numerous, high-tech submarines are its greatest advantage over Beijing’s rising military—and the surest guarantee against Chinese aggression.
https://medium.com/war-is-boring/china-has-begun-listening-for-american-submarines-448f7e04bbe1
