Pentagon: Chinese Surveillance Ship Spying on RIMPAC Exercise
Dan Arkin
| 17/07/2018
The USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier (Archive photo: AP)
The Pentagon said over the weekend that a Chinese surveillance ship is currently spying on the US-led Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise off the coast of Hawaii.
"The US Pacific Fleet has been monitoring a Chinese navy surveillance ship operating in the vicinity of Hawaii outside US territorial seas," US Navy Capt. Charles Brown, a spokesman for US Pacific Fleet, said in a statement. "We expect this ship will remain outside of US territorial seas and not operate in a manner that disrupts the ongoing Rim of the Pacific maritime exercise."
The spy ship arrived in the waters off Hawaii on July 11, and it has not entered the territorial seas of the United States, a US military official told CNN.
Twenty-six countries, 47 ships, five submarines and more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel were scheduled to participate in the exercise, according to the US Navy. This year, the exercise includes first-time participants from Israel, Brazil, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam.
CNN adds that a similar Russian spy ship was in the same area the last time RIMPAC took place in 2016, in which China participated.
China was disinvited from this year’s exercise over what the Pentagon called China's "continued militarization of disputed features in the South China Sea," including the deployment of anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missile systems and electronic jammers.
The USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier (Archive photo: AP)
The Pentagon said over the weekend that a Chinese surveillance ship is currently spying on the US-led Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise off the coast of Hawaii.
"The US Pacific Fleet has been monitoring a Chinese navy surveillance ship operating in the vicinity of Hawaii outside US territorial seas," US Navy Capt. Charles Brown, a spokesman for US Pacific Fleet, said in a statement. "We expect this ship will remain outside of US territorial seas and not operate in a manner that disrupts the ongoing Rim of the Pacific maritime exercise."
The spy ship arrived in the waters off Hawaii on July 11, and it has not entered the territorial seas of the United States, a US military official told CNN.
Twenty-six countries, 47 ships, five submarines and more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel were scheduled to participate in the exercise, according to the US Navy. This year, the exercise includes first-time participants from Israel, Brazil, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam.
CNN adds that a similar Russian spy ship was in the same area the last time RIMPAC took place in 2016, in which China participated.
China was disinvited from this year’s exercise over what the Pentagon called China's "continued militarization of disputed features in the South China Sea," including the deployment of anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missile systems and electronic jammers.
