Another Summer In The South China Sea:
A Guided Tour Of The World's Most Contested Waters
For the crew aboard the U.S. Navy P-8A, it was the start of a typical workday.
To the outside world, the intercept is one of the many signs the risk of conflict over the South China Sea is rising.
The People's Liberation Army fighter warned away the Americans from a network of militarized Chinese islands off the coast of Vietnam.
A hundred miles from a Chinese air base in the South China Sea a fighter approached a U.S. Navy surveillance plane.
Oct. 6, 2023
by Mallory Shelbourne
The air crewman operator knew the drill.
High over the South China Sea, at some 20,000 feet, prying eyes were about to look through the big observation window set on the aircraft’s port side. Filled with high-tech gear, the P-8A Poseidon also carried some distinctly low-tech equipment – drapes. The aircrew drew the heavy gray curtains around a single rotating chair as the Chinese Su-35 fighter approached.
It was a familiar ritual for the crew of the U.S. Navy plane, one of the P-8s flown by the “War Eagles” of Patrol Squadron 16. Just another Wednesday afternoon in August in the western Pacific.
“It’s become a pretty normal occurrence on this route for us,” Lt. Matthew Kraljic, one of the pilots, told USNI News. “We train to make sure that they’re always safe. We prioritize that, keeping everything safe and making sure we can continue on with the mission.”
https://news.usni.org/2023/10/06/another-summer-in-the-south-china-sea-a-guided-tour-of-the-worlds-most-contested-waters
