They were able to start targeting the Chinese sub only at 20 nm out? So the Chinese sub was within firing range of the British carrier, and it's only a Kilo sub to boot?
How is this a win for the British?
They were able to start targeting the Chinese sub only at 20 nm out? So the Chinese sub was within firing range of the British carrier, and it's only a Kilo sub to boot?
How is this a win for the British?
Its a win because normal people don't know how embarrassingly/dangerously close 20nm is.
Obviously, the CSG did not detect a Kilo-class at 20 nm. As I understood from the article the Merlin HM2 helicopter identified the vessel at 20 nm. Most likely the Type 23 frigates 2087 towed array (Captas-4) detected the submarine and sent out a Merlin which identified (again) at 20nm.
The Royal Navy is the premier ASW force in the world regarding training and equipment, so It's not really a win to detect the 1990/2000s Chinese SSK and SSNs.
In a conflict scenario, there would already be torpedoes sent before detection but perhaps more importantly, the sub would just stay hidden while vectoring in long range anti ship missiles.
Still, its somewhat messy that the SSK got spotted by a 2nd or 3rd rate navy while doing these exercises (although we won't know the times when they don't get spotted), but that's presumably why that crew gets a Kilo instead of the better SSKs. Sometimes during training its not a bad idea to push boundaries as far as they can go.
in reverse tho, how far the Kilo can detect and identify the British carrier and for how long she trailed the British carrier group before being found.
A Vietnamese Kilo shows up as one star on the sonar screen while a Chinese one shows up as one big star with four little ones. Duh.