China’s plan to keep the US out of the South China Sea

[Music] [Music] during the 18th and 19th centuries the british empire became an expert in influencing the world's commercial flow and other countries colonist expansion by leveraging on its control of global choke points like suez gibraltar and malacca during this period short-range naval artillery created the necessity of placing cannons closer to the enemy ships so ford started being built on the coastline and at sea protecting the entrance of ports and cities many countries in particular the us britain and france build extensive military fortifications on uninhabited islets and emerging sandbanks like those still visible in the hudson river the solent strait and france's west coast however after world war one artillery range became dramatically more effective and these offshore forts became obsolete for military uses almost a century later the drive to build offshore military installations has never been more relevant than now in modern days 18th century offshore forts have been replaced by huge island bases hundreds of miles away from land many of these modern island bases can be found decades before there were reefs or barely emerging sand banks in the last two decades the chinese government has pushed for the construction of air and naval bases on artificial islands in the south china sea unilaterally claiming exclusive sovereignty over the majority of this body of water setting the so-called nine-dash line however china is not the only player with a military presence in the pacific and indian oceans malaysia taiwan the philippines and vietnam all have military outposts in the south china sea india too has been pushing for a few years already in building up military outposts in the andaman and the north agalla archipelagos the us2 has a strong military footprint in the indian and western pacific oceans thanks to the island bases of guam and diego garcia used for intelligence and surveillance activities however this video will be focusing on chinese island bases in the spradly's archipelago and the south china sea for one main reason china has built a system of islands instead of focusing on one island only like its counterparts these chinese islands offer a glimpse in the implementation of beijing's military doctrine of battle space information management also called informationized warfare the informationized warfare underlying tenant is to provide the most detailed near real-time battlefield information to the pla military commanders whilst denying the information advantage to its competitors this is achieved by creating a network of intelligence gathering capabilities superior in both number and quality to what china's adversaries see the us can field in the region in order to obtain such an advantage the people's liberation army has been focusing on increasing its reconnaissance and intel capabilities both in terms of quality and numbers creating overlapping radar coverage on different platforms on land sea air space and even underwater all these different signals are combined together offering a more resilient and accurate system compared to those revolving around one centralized network review of satellite imagery shows staggering numbers of surveillance and communication systems across its seven outposts china has installed some 33 major satellite dishes over 50 high frequency antennas and around 30 air and surface search radars the south china sea plays host to really good examples of how modern weapons have changed military doctrines avoiding the risk of hitting civilian targets particularly in highly congested air and sea spaces makes the south china see the perfect sandbox pun intended to test out these new weapons in a highly trafficked environment through this body of water travels about one-third of the total global shipping connecting africa asia and europe inside one of the busiest sea lanes on the planet how is it even possible to determine a tanker from a cruiser or corvette from a fishing vessel well the answer is to have boots on the ground or rather flip-flops and radars on the beaches in the context of the south china sea remote emerging sandbanks and reefs have been transformed into unsinkable intelligent sensor platforms equipped with airstrips maintenance hangers and ports these act not just as reconnaissance outposts but as fully fledged intelligence-gathering hubs but how exactly are these islands structured a february 2018 article in the philippine daily inquirer gave an insight of unprecedented clarity in the vastness of infrastructures and buildings on chinese occupied features in the spratly islands in the southern part of the south china sea on the seven chinese-occupied islands can be found numerous sphere-shaped objects varying in size and capabilities these are called radomes and are presumably hosting satellite communication equipment and radars capable of identifying ships aircraft and missiles over a radius of hundreds of miles some analysts believe that the various typologies of radar have been installed on these outposts most probably these can be operated on different frequencies covering a wide range of the electromagnetic spectrum this variety makes it possible to have a better situational awareness thanks to different coverage and resolution that each radar can offer so having radars operating on a variety of frequencies allows finding that sweet spot between line-of-sight coverage and radar resolution thus expanding the pla's detection capabilities from commercially available satellite imagery it is possible to count about 27 of these radomes on chinese outposts in the spratly islands whereas the majority are installed on ground level some of these are found mounted on the top of towers some even 36 meters tall towers offer an elevated platform that greatly helps surveillance radars providing a better angle for target detections and reducing ground and atmospheric noise radar used frequencies are very similar to optical frequencies so their line of sight is limited by physical objects so earth's curvature mountains and clouds can all diminish a radar's range so compared with ground level radars those on top of an elevated structure have a wider line of sight coverage as it has a better scanning angle improving its detection capability however there's one type of radar that has a coverage over earth's curvature under specific meteorological conditions this type of radar uses a phenomenon of atmospheric refraction to send radio waves over the horizon and through the same path to receive the target's echo over the horizon radars have been installed on the three biggest islands these have a publicized maximum range of 450 kilometers and are found in couples on opposite tips of each island presumably to improve triangulation on the spradley subi reef can be seen a so-called elephant cage a vhf radar system publicized in china as a counter-stealth radar these radars have also been publicly advertised in other countries as long-range anti-stealth radars for their capacity of transmitting at very high frequencies for example jindal radar in australia has a reported range of one to three thousand kilometers however powerful land-based radars might be their coverage is greatly diminished beyond the horizon thus a variety of airborne radar platforms have been developed by chinese outposts in the south china sea and since 2020 these have been regularly operating from the chinese outposts and the spratlys airborne radars inherently have a better line of sight from which to scan for aerial and surface targets but they also can operate for hours in specific areas of interest these can achieve three to four more hours of on-site operational time compared to those departing from heinen bases a wide variety of air platforms can use the outpost airstrips from signal intelligence electronic warfare or even anti-submarine warfare [Music] chinese private companies have also been working on developing reef and offshore floatable sensor platforms the most significant example of this has been represented by cetf ocean e station this platform features a small radar system optic systems and presumably underwater surveillance sensors like hydrophones and sonars a total of seven of these systems have been installed already mainly around hainan island at the northern fringe of the south china sea and on one bombay reef in the paracels archipelago however it shouldn't be excluded of future deployment in the spratlys no matter the century the one holding the better intelligence has its chances of victory drastically increased as we've seen in this video modern artificial offshore features can be used for multiple intelligence purposes the numerous land sea and air based reconnaissance surveillance and intelligence systems in the spratlys create an intricate overlapping and redundant system of systems setting up an extremely complex informationized environment in the south china sea ensuring supremacy of information over the region the variety of platforms and types of radars used in the relatively small area of the southern south china sea points to the pla's idea of creating the most precise battle space information control diverse types of radar and platforms combined with a redundant number of these systems is a proof of consistency with the pla informationized warfare doctrine aiming at creating a multi-core system this is not one based equipped to the teeth with all radar possible but multiple bases with overlapping radar coverage and overlay defense systems detection of enemy forces doesn't come from one radar in one location but from the sum of radars fusing their data in one single system this network combines information from land sea air space and even underwater based systems creating a network that can deliver the needed information to pla commanders such an approach is much harder to jam or bypass and requires a high degree of capabilities and resources for an enemy force trying to enter into the south china sea if you like this video leave a like and comment if not the thumbs down button seems to work fine too thanks for watching and have a nice day [Music] you

Channel: Kamome

Views: 149,634

Keywords: South China Sea, Spratly, Informationized Warfare, US, Conflict, War, Radars in the SOuth CHina Sea, Radomes, Airborne Radars, Great Power COmpetition, Pacific OCean, Indian Ocean, Beijing, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, disputed islands, the philippines, paracel, spratly archipelago, fighter jets, awacs airplanes, US and CHina conflict, Geopolitics of Asia, Strategy of Asia, CHinese strategy, Documentary, Infographic, Narration, Map, Animation, Geography, Voice over

Id: ADbqcYlIfaY

Length: 10min 38sec (638 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 06 2021