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Text/Zhan Hai

Recently, the US-led Rim of the Pacific Exercise 2024 conducted a traditional "muscle show" segment, with the 29 participating countries dispatching more than 40 surface warships and 3 submarines to line up at sea for a military display. However, not far from the "joint formation" of 29 countries' warships, a Chinese warship was quietly watching this "big show".

According to reports, the warship that broke into the "RIMPAC" group photo alone is the Chinese Navy's Type 815A electronic reconnaissance ship, which is characterized by multiple spherical objects of different sizes on its hull.radarThe shield is jokingly called "a ball on the head". But it is this "ball on the head" electronic reconnaissance ship that has caused headaches for the United States. The PLA reconnaissance ship has previously appeared in the waters near the US-Philippines "Shoulder to Shoulder" military exercise, watching the military exercises of the two countries. This time it appeared in the Pacific Rim military exercise again, and it can be said that it is wherever the US warships are, and the main purpose is to "watch the whole process".

Although the 815A electronic reconnaissance ship does not have any weapons except for its self-defense guns, both the United States and other participating countries can only allow the ship to act as it pleases. After all, the area of ​​the Rim of the Pacific Exercise belongs to the high seas. If US warships can come, Chinese warships can naturally come as well.The United States and its allies do not have the power to expel this Chinese warship. Of course, given the powerful strength of the Chinese navy, they dare not use force to expel it.

It is reported that the various electronic reconnaissance equipment installed on the 815A electronic reconnaissance ship has an effective detection range of 700 kilometers, which is enough to detect the radars,SonarThe signals emitted by the detection equipment are captured, analyzed and classified, and the radio signals, and even images and videos emitted by these ships are intercepted.Although it is not as exaggerated as the jokes on the Internet that say it can "invade the other party's communication channels to play cartoons", its performance in the field of intelligence collection is very outstanding.

In fact, as a multinational maritime joint exercise, the Rim of the Pacific Exercise cannot conduct some in-depth practical subjects, considering the large gap in strength between the participating countries. The main purpose of the exercise is to strengthen "interoperability", and the face significance is greater than the actual significance. However, this Rim of the Pacific Exercise has a "highlight". The US military took out a Tawala-class quasi-aircraft carrier as a target ship and sank it at the exercise site. Considering that the tonnage of the Tawala-class amphibious assault ship is similar to that of our Type 075 amphibious assault ship, it is necessary to observe the process of sinking this "quasi-aircraft carrier" as a reference.

In fact, it is no longer news that Chinese reconnaissance ships monitor the military activities of the United States and its allies. The United States, Japan and other countries should have gotten used to it. As early as 2014, an 815A reconnaissance ship was in the waters near Hawaii, watching the entire Rim of the Pacific military exercise that year, and in 2016, it conducted a reconnaissance around Japan. In 2017, during the US military's missile interception test in Alaska, the 815A reconnaissance ship was also present.In recent years, as the US Navy's activities in the Asia-Pacific region have become more frequent, the 815A has also frequently appeared in various parts of the Pacific.

Faced with the close-range reconnaissance of Chinese electronic reconnaissance ships, the United States has no good solution. After all, this situation is largely caused by the United States. At that time, the United States sent a large number of spy ships to conduct reconnaissance in the waters around China.The U.S. ship "Impeccable" has even sailed to the Yellow Sea for close reconnaissance, but the United States still confuses right and wrong, slandering the PLA for "harassing" U.S. crew members.

Today, China's electronic reconnaissance ships are using their own tactics to return the favor, gathering intelligence at close range from U.S. warships. Faced with such powerful intelligence gathering capabilities, the U.S. military can only suffer the consequences. Just like when the United States launched the "freedom cruise", it probably never imagined that one day the offense and defense would change. Chinese warships appeared in the waters near Alaska for "freedom cruise" and sent electronic reconnaissance ships to watch the U.S. military exercises.