Sounds like the U.S.N. is going to miss the S-3's even more now.

That's true. They should also consider speeding up the P-8 MMA. :yep:

What ever happenned to a good destoyer screne for a carrier task force? You know, destroyers and subs and guarding the perimeter. It worked in WWII, and Vietnam, so why not deploy the same tactics now?

I assume the (unneeded) surfacing was less a political message (no need to let the opponent have a look into your cards), but to trigger an american reaction to study fleed behavior. Maybe they hope to learn from that how a sub should behave once it attacked a US battle group.

The Chinese navy is in a process of getting beefed up since years now, and alreayd two years ago, I think, a US study or commissions doubted that the US navy can be so sure anymore to have naval domination in case of a war in or near chinese claimed territories: in the links I remember, the survivability of CBGs within striking range to China was publicly put in doubt.

The Song incident should not be opver-interpreted, but one better should worry about those developements and progresses the chinese without doubt do acchieve - without these being printed in public media.

Absolutely agree. Based on my informations, the surfacing is just a friendly gesture, as a submarine remaining submerged is equivalent to being armed and ready to attack, while surfacing, losing its stleath, is showing that the sub is not hostile at all

The Chinese navy, along with navies around the world, is constantly improving. We have been testing on AIP for a few years on the Song class subs and Kilo class subs. As a modernizing country, it is vital for us to improve our arms. This race will never stop, will it?

Finally, I believe some of our improvements originates from USA, ironic but factual. The Yu-4 (fish 4) torpedo in the Chinese navy is a reverse engineered version of Mk. 46. Why Chinese gets a Mk 46? It's because the USA wanted China to hinge against USSR in Cold War, and deliberately let this precious fish fall in our hand as a gift. Why would a torpedo, unarmed, without self-destruction mechanism (to prevent any cloning in case it falls into enemy hands), and floats on the water so that a fisherman without any information about arms can recover it?

p.s. the news is already a very old one, by the way

The cynicism is strong in this one :p