Posted on 07/13/2012 4:53:45 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
MANILA, Philippines - The Department of National Defense (DND) on Friday confirmed that a Chinese warship has run aground on a shoal located well within Philippine waters, about 60 nautical miles from Rizal, Palawan.
The DND said the ship that ran aground was a Jianghu Class, a Chinese guided missile frigate with bow number 560.
“We have dispatched our own assets from the Western Command to investigate kung bakit siya andyan. Naaksidente ba? Kung kailangan nila ng tulong, tutulong tayo,” Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said.
Australian paper Sydney Morning Herald reported that the Chinese warship ran aground while patrolling the contested waters adjacent to the Philippines in the hotly-contested West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).
The report quoting Western Diplomatic sources added that the frigate pinned itself to a reef the other night at Half Moon (Hasa Hasa) Shoal, on the southeastern edge of the Spratlys Islands and remains “thoroughly struck”.
“Salvage operations could be diplomatically challenging, given the vessel appears to have run around within 200 kilometers of the Philippines Coast, which is squarely within what Manila claims to be its Exclusive Economic Zone,” the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Sources in the Armed Forces' Western Command (Wescom) said the ill-fated Chinese warship is one of several Chinese naval gunboats that have been conducting regular patrols in the West Philippine Sea and have been aggressively harassing Filipino fishermen in the hotly-contested waters.
Another source said the sea mishap occurred several days ago without any sign that the Chinese warship being salvaged from the area.
“It’s been there since it (warship) struck the reef several days ago,” said a source, adding that the Chinese vessel is based at the Chinese's highly-fortified Panganiban Reef (Mischief Reef).
Mischief Reef, he said, is only 76 nautical miles from Hasa Hasa Shoal.
(Excerpt) Read more at philstar.com ...
China claims virtually the entire area and has created an entirely new city to administer it, sparking deep concern from rival claimants. The sea hosts about a third of the world's cargo traffic, has rich fishing grounds and is believed to store vast oil and gas reserves."............
Looks like they are anchored to me?
If that ship did run around, I suspect the captain has been shot by the political officer and throw overboard by now.
Give the crew safe passage home (after a thurough “medical exam” to include the what, why, and how) and then strip down the vessel like the ChiComs did the US plane years ago.
You can return any junk you want after that. I hear most of it is “Made in China” anyway. (From US ideas and patents, however).
That isn’t a current photo.
Sounds like a sitting duck situation to me.
The Phillippine Navy whould board it, take possession of it, then tow it to the nearest port and turn it into a museum.
The Phillippine government should sieze it and trade it to North Korea for USS Pueblo.
I heartily second your proposal!
Is there some part of journalist training where they are taught to deliberately mis-label warships, especially in headlines.
Usually it’s calling everything a “battleship” but this time it’s calling a frigate a “Gunboat.”
That’s why they call it “Mischief Reef”.
Couldn’t they afford to put a foward scaning and side scaning Sonars on the ship? Really, my guess is they were making a “hero run”, running fast at night with all Sonar and Radar off trying to be undetected and relying only on GPS and charts that hadn’t been updated..... and they stuffed it! Did somebody screw with the GPS signal?
Hmmm... Kinda like the Japanese military vessel that “ran aground” in Baja in the early 1900’s.
Exclusive economic zones are not the same as territorial waters. Foreign ships, even warships, still have free passage through them. Now whether this shoal is part of the Philipines or not and therefore extends the territorial waters is another question.
Maybe it was intentional.
http://manilastandardtoday.com/www2/2012/06/01/military-wary-of-chinese-in-panatag-shoal/
June 1, 2012 - “MILITARY officials said Thursday they were worried that Chinese forces might put up markers or structures on the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the West Philippine Sea to bolser Beijing’s claim to the area.
“We will wake up one day and see markers or a small structure already planted inside or outside the lagoon to boost their claim,” said a ranking military official who spoke on condition of anonymity.”...................
The Philippines isn’t in a position to push the Chinese around.
A few well placed rounds or torpedoes should eliminate any need for salvage operations.
You can build ships but ships do not a navy make—its about traditions, training, and how these are used. If it was just ships—Italian Dictator Mussolini would have beaten the British Royal Navy in WW II. China is trying to become a naval Power and its going to take more than some ships.
Yes, that's a WW2 destroyer-escort, one that hasn't been modernized. The largest ship they have in service is a 1960s Coast Guard cutter.
That was my first thought, but on reflection they are not what would be a frigate today.
This is not a modern warship - No ASW, littleAA
Although relatively new, the Jianghu V class were produced in the mid90s but dusting off the plans of the 70s Jianghu I (and those ships were at least 15 years behind world standard then).
The aim was to build up the Southern Fleet numbers of patrol ships quickly and cheaply. Not for combat, just ships to provide a military presence - the classic gunboat role.
The Jianghu V are gunboats, not frigates
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