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Unidentified submarine spotted in Japanese waters

The Aegis destroyer Atago spotted the periscope of a submarine in Japanese territorial waters this morning, but it slipped away before it could be identified. The Defense Ministry has confirmed it was not an American sub, and some believe it was probably a Chinese submarine.

If it was a submarine, it wasn’t following international law:

Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, foreign submarines and other underwater vehicles are “required to navigate on the surface and to show their flag” in territorial waters during peacetime.

In November 2004, a Chinese nuclear-powered submarine entered Japanese territorial waters near the southern island of Okinawa and ignored Japanese orders for it to surface. The incident escalated already stormy relations with China at the time, stirring up fear in Japan over China’s military.

19 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - September 14, 2008 at 9:10 pm

Categories: General Japan Tags: china, japan

CloverfieldMonster

Gojira ?
tky12

Probably north korean .

Those lame people don’t get it , people don’t wanna come to your flunked nation .

Jack Elliot

Doubtful. Don’t give into the Japanese propaganda.

Bad Wolf

Next time, sink it.
helical

Most likely: Chinese.
Less likely: Russian.
Possible but unlikely: North Korean.
Oh-so-funny if true: Sea Shepherd.

In any way, blowing their asses out of the water would still fall under defensive measures, right? But then again, this is Japan we’re talking about, so the country that was doing the invading would come out protesting about some BS reason about “peaceful” oceanographic research being sunk, Japan will express regret and end up paying reparations of some sort.
Wayne Li

Lol North Korea is probably planning some more abductions
mortonsalt

well, at least there not ramming into any fishing boats.
Kenny

It was probably Captain Nemo
http://www.japaneconomynews.com/ Ken

A North Korean sub with capability to be in that space? Name one! It’s obviously a Chinese sub – no worries – they’re all over.
Mister M

It is kind of hard to say which country the submarine was belonged to, but historically speaking, China never accepted Japan´s authority over them, and because of it and other things that I believed that the relationship between these two nations will be improved.

Random Filipino

I don’t get your comment. If I’m not mistaken you’re saying that the Chinese never accepted (WWII) Japanese authority, therefore relations will improve. Non sequitur? Although regarding the sub, it won’t be surprising if it was Chinese. There have been Chinese submarine incursions in foreign waters these past few years, and they’ve caused some concern regarding China’s military and natural resource ambitions.

Bryce

Where the hell were all the PC3s?
Keiki

Most probably American!
Hmmm i read somewhere else that China STILL building nuclear sub! In other words they dont have it yet.

http://www.japanprobe.com James

I hope you realize non-nuclear submarines exist, and China has loads of them.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-492804/The-uninvited-guest-Chinese-sub-pops-middle-U-S-Navy-exercise-leaving-military-chiefs-red-faced.html

http://www.hormel.com VonSkippy

The Aegis ships have a FULL compliment of both Active search and attack sonar as well as Passive and Passive tow arrays.

Real objects, like a submarine (unlike the Loch Ness Monster) don’t just “slip away” after being sighted, especially not from a ship with a full blown sonar array.

I’m guessing this is just a warm up “story” so that the Japanese Navy can request more petrol (i.e. “if only we had enough gas we could have chased the periscope….”).

LB

“Real objects, like a submarine (unlike the Loch Ness Monster) don’t just “slip away” after being sighted, especially not from a ship with a full blown sonar array.”

Yeah, that is why there is a 100% success rate against enemy submarines in wartime, right? No surface ship has ever lost a submarine they were tracking or trying to engage, ever, right?

The reality is a good deal more complicated than you seem to think. Subs that have been located have been able to slip away. Subs have been able to evade searches from ships with full-blown sonar arrays, and ASW air support, even when those ships and assets knew there was a sub out there. Just ask the JMSDF – they have, on several occasions (not once, not twice, but several times) been able to get one of their subs to well within kill range of a US aircraft carrier during exercises, without being detected.

LB

Oh man, the Japan Times posted a letter from some loon in Tokyo who said “I find it hard to believe that an Aegis destroyer within sighting distance of a “periscopelike object” poking out of the water Sunday morning could not tell what country the submarine belonged to.”

(Rolls eyes) Dude – they don’t fly the flag from there. They doubtless got a good reading of the size of the sub using sonar. They say they didn’t record the engine sounds, which would have given them a good indication of the sub’s type, which would narrow down the list of suspects (but which may still not give a 100% accurate indication of nationality). But if they’re submerged, just seeing the periscope in the distance isn’t going to tell you squat.

Maybe if they got real close and saw it was stamped “Made In China”…
Pingback: ‘Foreign submarine’ may have been whale | Japan Probe
Rob

I’m glad you have that figured out for us. Detective Sheriff D to the rescue!

Unidentified submarine spotted in Japanese waters

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