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!
"Might they be probing for response times or force structure in the responses?"
Could be, the good lord knows we submariners love to probe......
Thats a very good possibility, but the big picture would dictate they would get all the information they can before doing a hiyaki and running.
I think they were logging aircraft, troop and ship movements from Okinawa, and had been there for some time. Counter-detection and detection was definitely part of the game, in my opinion.
Worst case scenario for them is to be depth charged to the surface and the surviving crew (if there is any) tried for espionage....but it wont happen.
Best case is they will be tracked back to port and a formal complain lodged against the Chinese govt.
Whoops. I should have read the thread before responding to my ping.
They may be recording elint to test their new toys. They may be up by enough to be in the ballpark.
The more I think about it though, elint seems the least likely. It doesn't take a boat to record data bursts.
I think I'll side with you on the probe, ExSoldier.