Recently, relying on the support and instigation of the United States, the Philippines has repeatedly provoked China in the South China Sea and repeatedly trespassed into the islands and reefs under China's sovereignty.
After being jointly attacked by the Chinese coast guard and navy, using a series of powerful countermeasures such as water cannon spraying and heavy helicopters circling at low altitudes to drive them away, the Filipinos have suffered considerable losses and setbacks, both in terms of the equipment of the ships used for trespassing and the momentum of daring to trespass.
The China Coast Guard upholds sovereignty
On the other hand, it is obviously unacceptable for the United States, the mastermind behind the scenes, to sit back and watch the Filipinos suffer such a demoralization and damage to their equipment, and then lose the ability to continue to provoke China in the South China Sea.
What the United States needs has always been a Philippines that can provoke China with concrete actions in the South China Sea, not a Philippines that can only shout empty slogans and be a cheerleader. Rushing to the front for the US military as a gunman is the greatest significance of the Philippines to the United States on the anti-China issue.
In order to achieve this goal, restore the confidence of the Philippines to continue its anti-China provocations, and boost its anti-China momentum, the United States has recently launched a number of military exercises with the Philippines.
Not only did it send the USS Roosevelt, which had just been evacuated from the South China Sea, but also sent an additional amphibious assault ship that was smaller than a serious aircraft carrier to change the "lightning aircraft carrier" - the Boxer, which was equipped with the world's strongest stealth carrier-based fighter F35B.
USS Boxer amphibious assault ship
However, the Boxer had a bad start, and just went out to encounter a technical failure, and then the engine was paralyzed due to the operation failure of the crew team, and after returning to the continental United States, it was found that there was no airspace dock to repair, and it was foreseeable that it would be paralyzed for a long time. As a result, the US Navy's forces deployed in the Asia-Pacific region have long lacked a vital main force.
Even so, the U.S. Navy, which cannot afford to lose face, continues to carry out joint military exercises with the Philippines as planned in the absence of the Boxer to join it, so as to support and encourage the Philippines to provoke and cause trouble in the next stage in the South China Sea.
However, the good times did not last long, and in the actual course of the military exercise, codenamed "Shoulder to Shoulder-2024", the United States and the Philippines encountered an unexpected situation - the "sudden accession" of the Chinese Navy.
The Chinese Navy's Type 815 electronic reconnaissance ship appeared in the waters of the US-Philippine exercise
According to the videos and photos taken by the United States and the Philippines, in the exercise area, a Type 815 electronic reconnaissance ship belonging to the Chinese Navy, the 793 ship "Uranus", appeared near the U.S.-Philippine exercise fleet and followed all the way. According to the information disclosed by the US military afterwards, the Chinese Navy's "Uranus" continued to monitor and track the US and Philippine fleets for eight hours at a distance of 2 nautical miles (about 3.6 kilometers).
Although the US Navy did not specify the specific situation, it is foreseeable that the joint exercise of the Chinese Navy's "Uranus" against the US and Philippine fleets will certainly be in trouble.
One of the main contents of this US-Philippine joint exercise is to deepen the degree of coordination and cooperation between US and Philippine warships at sea, and the coordination and cooperation of modern warships cannot be solved by raising a signal flag and issuing simple flag commands like the old sailing navy, but must be accomplished through various wireless communication channels and information transmission.
The three ships of China, the United States, and the Philippines are very close to each other
Even though the Philippine military's ships are backward in performance and close to zero in terms of information communication capabilities, basic radio communication between them and US warships is indispensable. The Chinese Navy's Type 815 electronic reconnaissance ship carries a lot of electromagnetic information reconnaissance equipment, which can keenly and timely capture any electromagnetic signal emitted by the US and Philippine warships, analyze their characteristics and record them, and finally convert them into actual usable electromagnetic spectrum intelligence.
The Philippine Navy, which is completely not in the same order of magnitude as the Chinese Navy, is completely disparity with China's naval strength, and is not qualified to confront the Chinese Navy in terms of hard power, and leaking electromagnetic intelligence is not a big deal, but it is completely different for the US Navy.
Today's US Navy has long regarded the PLA as the main imaginary enemy, and its current military doctrine and campaign tactics basically revolve around "how to confront the PLA." For the US Navy, which is highly modernized, information-based, and relies on superiority in technology and equipment, electromagnetic intelligence leakage is undoubtedly fatal, and it is also something that the US Navy extremely does not want to see, let alone accept.
In the event of an armed confrontation with the PLA, the leakage of electromagnetic intelligence is enough to cause catastrophic consequences for the US Navy. After all, the People's Liberation Army really has a credible and reliable ability to sink the capital ships and even aircraft carriers of the US Navy, which the Americans themselves have to admit.
The purpose of the joint exercises between the US Navy and the Philippine Navy is essentially to bolster the Philippines for continuing to provoke China and to restore confidence and confidence in the Philippines so that it can continue to rush to the front, do what the US military originally did, and continue to act as a gunman for the Americans. Under this kind of starting point and ultimate goal, if the US Navy leaks vital electromagnetic intelligence during this period, it will be regarded as "picking up sesame seeds and losing watermelons." It is a typical case of sacrificing the basics and losing more than the gains.
But on the other hand, this is a time of peace rather than war, and China and the United States are in a state of actual confrontation, but not armed conflict, and both sides are trying to avoid the possibility of a conflict that could break out.
What can the US Navy do in the face of the Chinese Navy's Type 815 electronic reconnaissance ship approaching for reconnaissance in the waters of the open sea? The answer is that it cannot do anything. There is no way or means to exert any strong measures against the "Neptune ship", which represents the People's Liberation Army and is backed by China's powerful strength.
USS Roosevelt of the US Navy
As the saying goes, "Kou can go to me or there", the US Navy can go to the sea area, and the Chinese Navy can also go there, not to say that the US-Philippine military exercises are carried out in this sea area, and this sea area is owned by the United States and the Philippines.
In the face of the Chinese Navy's Type 815 electronic reconnaissance ship, the only thing the US Navy can do is to keep the electronics silent and not emit any electromagnetic signals, as long as it does not emit them, it will naturally not be detected and recorded by the Chinese Navy.
However, in this way, there is no communication, and it is just a joint military exercise between the United States and the Philippines in which two ships drive together on the sea, and in addition to the "political performance", how much practical significance is left, and this is the question that the Americans themselves should consider. In this regard, the Chinese Navy's countermeasures of dispatching Type 815 electronic reconnaissance ships are also effective.
Some of the sources of information in this article:
The US-Philippines "shoulder to shoulder" joint military exercise is menacing, how should China respond?
The largest scale so far! The United States and the Philippines launched the Guangming Network amid the "shoulder to shoulder" protests