miércoles, 29 de enero de 2025

 

ANTI-SUBMARINE STRATEGY

Why should Washington and its allies tread very carefully in the Taiwan Strait?

 

By Sidney Hey 

We have entered a new era of geopolitics, no doubt about it. Trump is now sitting in the White House setting in motion his foreign policy strategies (inspired by William McKinley) that will undoubtedly shape international reality. His main objectives focus on managing solutions for Ukraine, the South Sea (China) and the unstable situation in the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, no one has been standing idly by and since Trump's victory became known, each of the US adversaries has been working to confront what will be a very dangerous era led by a ruler with a fractious character, who undoubtedly under a nationalist tone will continue with the hegemonist agenda and with a tendency to be controlled by his narcissism.

Thus, North Korea has not halted its progress in developing new hypersonic missiles, joining the select group of countries that possess this technology. At the same time, Russia and Iran have already signed a new cooperation and mutual assistance treaty that brings together common interests, one of which is to address the already promised aggressive US policy.

China has also been working on everything related to the island of Taiwan and the illegal and subversive Anglo-American interference with the intention of turning it into a military fortress. Recently Putin and Xi Jinping met again to strengthen and expand strategic cooperation aimed (among other things) at guaranteeing security, which is being disrupted by US interference. To this end, the Biden administration invested a large amount of funds to support the ‘democratic’ activities of the CIA and MI6 screens operating inside the island (and also from Hong Kong), buying the will of Tsai Ing-wen's government and, of course, financing arms packages for much more than defending the island from a hypothetical invasion.

Consistent with the Chinese character, Xi Jinping did not stand idly by and watch events unfold. As has been the policy of his two predecessors, the need to strengthen fists is as important as progress in the economy and trade. His history of sacrifices, in which Western abuses had much to do with it, gives solid meaning to the proverb ‘The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step’ as China did not become a power overnight.

Other states, believing that they will find salvation without effort or awareness of the need to strengthen their muscles, get into the wheel of eternal indebtedness and humiliation with those who are their natural enemies.

The examples are categorical of what a weak nation would mean. Without the muscle to protect the strategic interests of such a vast nation, it simply could not speak of any economic prosperity, let alone independence in its trade policies.

China, on the other hand, has worked for decades to sustain its political and economic progress, even having to disavow its leadership in favour of the latter. The only thing that makes the Anglo-Saxon West think twice is force, as they use it in their geopolitics. It is in this sense that the Chinese have not stopped their research, development and advances in warfare technology, which is now becoming vital in the Taiwan issue.

For a number of years now, fearful of Western intelligence reports, Taipei has set itself the goal of modernising and expanding its submarine fleet with the cooperation of the British and the US. The first product of this is the ‘Haikun’ (IDS), the first submarine built in Taiwan.

Coincidentally, after some rumours from an IWFOR colleague connected with some British submarine officers from Whitehall temporarily stationed in Australia, there is talk of a secret Chinese naval weapon that could sink any NATO nuclear submarine. Apparently, a couple of years ago there was a closely guarded incident with a ‘Vanguard’ class SSBN submarine in which there were two American naval attachés who took note of the event.

As they entered the strait and with information that they were not being watched from the mainland, the operators detected at about 44 fathoms two static objects similar in shape and size to magnetic mines in the vicinity of “Pingtan” Island (nearly Chinese sea), but that is where the surprise came. As soon as they saw them on the sonar (LFA) they began to pulse a kind of sine wave that apparently shut down the reactor and the ship's computer system. As he told me: ‘It was a terrify situation that wrinkled my bum’. The pulsing would have lasted only a few seconds and after it stopped the system was restored so they could run away and tell the story.

If just two devices no bigger than a magnetic mine disabled the nuclear reactor of a 150-metre vessel and the entire computer control, crippling it, what could happen with a dozen such devices across the strait or scattered throughout the South Sea?

It seems that the top brass took it very seriously and did not attribute this to casual failures due to lack of maintenance or design. They also ruled out any problems with the submarine cables that run through it, suggesting that there is a very worrying possibility that a new underwater weapon system has been found that could disable any submarine, British, Aussie or American, in the blink of an eye.

 

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