Andrew S. Erickson

Bryan McGrath, “China Thinks ASW,” Information Dissemination, 11 April 2014.

Lyle Goldstein at the China Maritime Studies Institute is a national treasure (along with his colleague, Andrew Erickson), and he has teamed up once again with Shannon Knight from the Naval Undersea Warfare Center to produce a fascinating article in this month’s Proceedings, which is unfortunately behind the firewall (hey, why aren’t you a member?) The piece, “Wired for Sound in the Near Seas” details China’s development of a sophisticated network of fixed ocean floor acoustic sensors off its coasts.  After reminding readers that analysts have for years rightly downplayed China’s ASW capabilities, Goldstein and Knight make this assertion:

“Defense analysts who follow Chinese military literature closely, however, will have noticed over the past several years that the massive Chinese military-industrial complex has now come around to the great importance of ASW, and China’s substantial military and science-research energies have shifted accordingly. The fruits of these major research efforts are now gradually coming into view. Most startling is the revelation in numerous Chinese scientific and strategy publications since 2012 that China has deployed fixed ocean-floor acoustic arrays off its coast, presumably with the intent to monitor foreign submarine activities in the ‘near seas.’”