Non-Subscriber Extract
USA and China wrangle over US 'spyplane'
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| 2 April 2001 |
By Martin Streetly,
Editor of Jane's Electronic Mission Aircraft
US and Chinese officials were today wrangling over the return of a US Navy EP-3 surveillance aircraft that landed at Lingshui military airfield on Hainan island on the morning of Sunday 1 April 2001. The US aircraft diverted to Lingshui following a mid-air collision between itself and one of two Chinese J-8 interceptors that had been launched to shadow it while it conducted a reconnaissance mission over the South China Sea.
The Chinese have reported that the EP-3 veered into one of the fighters, hitting it with its nose and port wing. The US aircraft broadcast a 'Mayday' distress call prior to making its emergency landing at Lingshui, while, as of 11.00 GMT on 2 April, no remains of the J-8 fighter had been found. The EP-3's 24-man crew was reported to have survived the emergency landing.
The US government has been quick to stress the view that the People's Republic of China has no reason to hold the aircraft's crew (claiming that the aircraft was operating in international air space at the time of the collision) and that the EP-3 itself is US 'sovereign territory'. This latter point is of considerable significance, since the longer the aircraft is in China's hands, the longer its intelligence services will have to examine the extremely sensitive surveillance technology carried by such platforms.
EP-3 or 'Iron Clad'?
While referred to as an EP-3, initial reports concerning this incident do not specifically identify the type of US aircraft involved. Jane's analysis suggests that it is either a Lockheed Martin EP-3E Aries II signals intelligence (SIGINT) aircraft or a Lockheed Martin 'Iron Clad' P-3 covert surveillance platform.
EP-3E Aries II
The US Navy's EP-3E Aries II aircraft is a long-rang, tactical and strategic, SIGINT platform based on the P-3C Orion maritime reconnaissance airframe. Normally flown by a crew of 20, the type is in service with Fleet Electronic Reconnaissance Squadrons VQ-1 and VQ-2 that are home-based at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington State, and Naval Station Rota, Spain, respectively. If the aircraft involved in the described incident is an EP-3E, it is most likely to belong to VQ-1 and to have originated from the squadron's detachment at Misawa Air Base, Japan.
Capable of collecting both radar and communications intelligence, the US Navy currently operates 11 EP-3Es with an additional example planned to replace the aircraft that crashed at Souda Bay on Crete during September 1997. Equipment carried by the EP-3E includes the AN/ALD-9(V) direction-finder, the AN/ALR-76 radar band electronic support system, the AN/ALR-81(V) receiver system and the OE-319 and OE-320 antenna groups. A fuller description of the EP-3E Aries II aircraft can be found in Jane's Electronic Mission Aircraft.
'Iron Clad' P-3
The US Navy's 'Utility Patrol' Squadrons VPU-1 (Brunswick, Maine) and VPU-2 (Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii) operate a small number of 'Iron Clad' P-3B and P-3C aircraft that are configured for covert, multi-sensor surveillance. Externally very similar to their maritime reconnaissance cousins, the 'Iron Clad' aircraft are reported as being equipped with a sensor suite that, over time, has included SIGINT, acoustic recording and analysis and chemical analysis equipment together with optical and electro-optical cameras. A fuller description of the 'Iron Clad' programme can be found in Jane's Electronic Mission Aircraft.