[judicial meanz]

Something's up. The boat was probably specfically chosen for its capabilities to perform a certain desired mission. Lets hit the basics and see what the CHICOMS are up to. ___________________________________________________________ Sea Lane denial is out because they are too close inland to deny access to or hit any local shipping lanes. Intel gathering is the most probable. Depends on the ELINT suite and their capabilities. To my knowledge, the CHICOMS are not the best intel operators in the world, but they may have gotten better in the years since I left the Navy. Special Forces Insertion and recon is out...they would have been caught doing it by now. ASW ops....not likely Training...highly doubtful if it is in Japanese territorial waters Best guess: Intelligence and recon to report aircraft, ship and troop movements from Okinawa, as well as plotting the waters for later reference. Sounds like the Han class SSN, probably stationed at either Shanghai or Quingdao:

[HipShot]

Could this be the boat they launched secretly? The one we knew nothing about until it hit the water?

Elint is still a possibility. We don't know how much they gleaned from our aircraft. Three years is enough time to implement.

One more thought; it may be actively comms disruptive based on the same info from our aircraft.

[ExSoldier]

I know less than nothing about the navy and naval tactics, so this is just a shot in the dark. Might they be probing for response times or force structure in the responses? If you see what I mean? Kind of like:

Gee we wandered around their waters for about ten hours now and they've just shown up with a destroyer task force and antisubmarine aircraft overhead. ~Writing, scribble scribble~ Okay, let's BUG OUT before they drop depth charges!