Chinese Sub Plays Peek-A-Boo With the Kitty Hawk

Drudge is running a big headline about a Chinese diesel sub that surfaced - apparently undetected - within 5 miles of the US aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk:

A Chinese submarine stalked a U.S. aircraft carrier battle group in the Pacific last month and surfaced within firing range of its torpedoes and missiles before being detected, The Washington Times has learned.

The surprise encounter highlights China's continuing efforts to prepare for a future conflict with the U.S., despite Pentagon efforts to try to boost relations with Beijing's communist-ruled military.

The submarine encounter with the USS Kitty Hawk and its accompanying warships also is an embarrassment to the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, Adm. William J. Fallon, who is engaged in an ambitious military exchange program with China aimed at improving relations between the two nations' militaries.

I'm not a submariner, but I doubt this is a big deal. Number one, we're not at war with China, so the presence of a Chinese diesel boat near our task force is not that big a threat. What are we supposed to do, blow it out of the water?

Number two, diesel boats of this class sound like old washing machines under water, and I highly doubt that it was undetected. It had probably been monitered since it left port, and its presence probably didn't surprise anybody. Had the task force been at full alert during a time of war, there 's no way that sub would have gotten anywhere near the Kitty Hawk. It would have been a collection of loose and scorched parts scattered across the bottom of the ocean.

It makes for a sexy story in a time when the media meme is "the military can't do anything right", but I don't think there's that much to this story.