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0 pointswredcoll2mo ago0 comments

Do you seriously think the US Navy doesn't avoid Chinese tracking? What kind of a question is that? Like, there's probably a magazine that lists the cruising destinations of most of the carriers, what ports they're going to stop at next, etc, because, you know, they're not at war and trying to maintain secrecy.

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4 comments · 2 top-level

shmeeed2mo ago· 2 in thread

US carrier groups probably pose the #1 strategic threat to the PRC in the Pacific. You can safely assume they throw whatever resources are necessary at the task of knowing their whereabouts.

I mean, you can try all you want, but there's limits to hiding a fleet of ships on the open sea. They are huge, emit immense heat signatures, and produce miles-long wakes while moving. As long as there are satellites overhead, they will be able to find them.

I suspect we might be talking past one another because we have different degrees of precision in mind: I'm not saying the Chinese could have a missile target lock on a carrier whenever they wanted, much less in wartime. Far from it. But I highly doubt you can reposition a carrier group without them catching wind of it within hours.

wredcollOP2mo ago

This is the sort of arms race that is going to change every year. I just read an article that claimed that China has launched a system of satellites that use non-visual means to track ships in the pacific (via.. emissions or radar or something?) and china can certainly afford to put a bunch of them in orbit.

It's not impossible to track a carrier group via satellites, but it's not trivial either, you can't just, like, open up your windows gui and click on a satellite and click the button that says "follow this carrier" because like satellites orbit and fly around the earth and the ships can alter course when you don't have eyes on them and so on and so forth.

And yeah, as you point out, there's a big difference between having a satellite picture showing a probable carrier group at X and Y coordinates and being able to actually strike the thing.

shmeeed2mo ago

I found this worthwhile read on the topic: https://warontherocks.com/carrier-strike-groups-should-be-re...

Jensson2mo ago

> Do you seriously think the US Navy doesn't avoid Chinese tracking?

How would they avoid having a Chinese satellite continuously track their movement? They have the capability to do that, there is nothing USA can do about it except shoot down all the Chinese satelites.

https://defencesecurityasia.com/en/china-three-satellites-tr...

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