Chinese ships 'harass' US vessel

[formercia]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7933171.stm

Chinese ships 'harass' US vessel

Five Chinese ships have manoeuvred dangerously close to a US navy vessel in the South China Sea, the US government has said.

US officials said the incident came after days of "increasingly aggressive" acts by Chinese ships.
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The incident happened on Sunday as the USNS Impeccable was on routine operations in international waters 75 miles (120km) south of Hainan island, a US statement said.

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http://www.msc.navy.mil/N00p/pressrel/press00/press26.htm

USNS Impeccable Christened Nov. 1

Champagne graced the bow of new Military Sealift Command ship USNS Impeccable during a christening ceremony on Nov. 1 at Halter Marine in Pasacagoula, Miss. The ceremony marked the official naming of USNS Impeccable, the only ship in her class.

MSC operates eight ocean surveillance ships that use a towed-array sensor system, called SURTASS, to support the Navy's antisubmarine warfare capability. The SURTASS mission is to gather ocean acoustical data for antisubmarine warfare and rapidly transmit the information to the Navy for prompt analysis.

Three SURTASS-equipped ships, the Stalwart-class, are mono-hulled, while the four remaining ships, the Victorious class, are small, waterplane-area, twin-hull, or SWATH, ships like Impeccable. MSC operates a fourth mono-hulled ship equipped for the SURTASS mission, MV Cory Chouest, on a long term charter. The Victorious-class SWATH ships provide a more stable platform for the use of SURTASS equipment than the mono-hulled ships. Two hundred and eighty-one-feet long, Impeccable is capable of a sustained speed of 12 knots and is considerably larger and faster than the 235-foot Victorious-class ships, which are capable of a sustained speed of 9.6 knots.

Impeccable has a more powerful propulsion plant and is designed specifically for deploying two towed-array sonar systems -- a passive system, which listens for acoustic information, and an active system which emits a low frequency and works in conjunction with the passive system to gather acoustic data.

"MSC has come a long way since 1958 when the Military Sea Transportation Service charter was expanded to include operating scientific support ships involved in oceanographic research, missile tracking, communications and other special missions," said Vice Adm. Holder, USN, Commander, Military Sealift Command.

Today, MSC operates about 30 Special Mission ships around the world providing operation platforms and services for unique U.S. military and federal government services with missions as varied as oceanographic surveying and counter-narcotic operations.

"USNS Impeccable will support the Navy as a platform for scientists from the Integrated Undersea Surveillance Systems community," said Vice Adm. Holder. "We at MSC will operate the ship. We will provide the civilian mariners for the engine room, the wheelhouse and the galley."

The Honorable H. Lee Buchanan III, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, delivered the principal address at the christening ceremony. Leah Gansler, wife of the Honorable Jacques S. Gansler, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology, and Margareta Augustine, wife of Norman Augustine, former chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp., served as the ship's co-sponsors and broke the ceremonial bottles of champagne across the ship's bow -- officially naming USNS Impeccable. Also present were Vice Adm. Holder and Rear Adm. Dennis Morral, USN, Program Executive Officer for Expeditionary Warfare, Chief of Naval Operations Staff.

Military Sealift Command, the ocean transportation provider for the Department of Defense, operates about 110 noncombatant Navy ships daily around the world. MSC ship missions vary from the transport and afloat prepositioning of defense cargo; to underway replenishment and other direct support to Navy ships at sea; to at-sea data collection for the U.S. military and other U.S. government agencies.