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USNS Impeccable (T-AGOS-23)
Encyclopedia
USNS Impeccable (T-AGOS-23) is an Impeccable-class
ocean surveillance ship acquired by the U.S. Navy in 2001 and assigned to Military Sealift Command
’s Special Missions Program.
. The contract was awarded on 28 March 1991. The ship's keel was laid down on 15 March 1992, but the Tampa shipyards went bankrupt by November 1993. On 3 December 1992, the General Accounting Office published a report that concluded that T-AGOS 24-27 should not be built. Shortly afterwards the government decided to discontinue this class of ships, but the Impeccable was to be completed as the sole ship in its class. The hull was towed to Gulfport, Mississippi
, in 1995 where it was finished by Halter Marine Inc. She was launched on 28 August 1998 and was delivered to the Navy on 22 March 2001 which assigned her to the Military Sealift Command
(MSC) Special Missions Program.
. The ship's catamaran
-type small waterplane area twin hull
(SWATH) design prevents the vessel from rolling in heavy seas and gives additional deck space for storing the acoustic equipment.
arrays to detect and track undersea threats.
monitoring submarine activity when it was approached by a People's Liberation Army Navy
(PLAN) frigate
, which crossed its bow at a range of approximately 100 yards without first making contact. This was followed less than two hours later by a Chinese Y-12
aircraft, conducting 11 flyovers of Impeccable at an altitude of 600 feet (182.9 m) and a range from 100 foot. The frigate then crossed Impeccable bow again, this time at a range of approximately 400–500 yards.
On March 7, a Chinese intelligence ship contacted the Impeccable over bridge-to-bridge radio, calling her operations illegal and directing Impeccable to leave the area or "suffer the consequences."
On March 8, 2009, the Impeccable was 75 miles south of Hainan
, China
, when it was shadowed by five Chinese ships: a Bureau of Maritime Fisheries Patrol Vessel, a State Oceanographic Administration patrol vessel, a People's Liberation Army Navy ocean surveillance ship, and two Chinese-flagged naval trawler
s, which maneuvered close to the Impeccable, with two closing in to 50 feet (15.2 m), waving Chinese flags, and ordering the Impeccable from the area. The Impeccable sprayed water at one of the nearest Chinese ships; the Chinese sailors stripped down to their underwear and their vessel closed in to within 25 feet of the American ship. Shortly after the incident, the Impeccable radioed the Chinese crews, informing them of its intentions to leave the area, and requesting a safe pass to travel. When it was trying to leave the area, however, the two Chinese trawlers dropped pieces of wood in the Impeccables path and stopped directly in front of it, forcing it to do an emergency stop
to avoid a collision. Once the Impeccable got underway, the crew aboard one of the trawlers used a grappling hook to try to snag Impeccable's towed sonar array.
The United States lodged formal protests following the incident, stating that under international law, the U.S. military can conduct activities "in waters beyond the territorial sea of another state without prior notification or consent" including in an exclusive economic zone of another country. "The unprofessional maneuvers by Chinese vessels violated the requirement under international law to operate with due regard for the rights and safety of other lawful users of the ocean." China's Foreign Ministry responded that the Pentagon's complaint that five Chinese vessels had harassed the Impeccable were "totally inaccurate", although this claim was disputed by several released reports, which all state that the Impeccable was interfered with numerous times, both while operating in the area and when attempting to leave..
On March 12, 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama
gave the go-ahead to send the guided missile destroyer
USS Chung-Hoon
(DDG-93) to the South China Sea to protect the Impeccable while operating in that area.
Hans M. Kristensen
of the Federation of American Scientists
has suggested that the incident may be related to the classified Type 093 submarine
that the Chinese navy had recently deployed in the area.
.
Wang Dengping, political commissar of the Armament Department of Navy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, condemned the Impeccable's activities, stating that "Innocent passage by naval vessels from other countries in the Territorial waters
in the Special Economic Zone
is acceptable, but not allowed otherwise" under the Convention. Chinese actions were further defended by Professor Ji Guoxing of Shanghai Jiao Tong University
who, writing in China Security, maintained that under the Convention, navigation rights in coastal countries' exclusive economic zones are "subject to the resource-related and environment-related laws and regulations of the coastal state," and China could exclude the Impeccable on this basis. Ji further asserted that the Convention's prohibition against gathering military intelligence in another country's territorial waters should be interpreted to also prohibit intelligence gathering in coastal countries' exclusive economic zones.
The United States by contrast, maintained that the Convention, which it has signed, but not yet ratified, authorizes activities such as those undertaken by Impeccable.
Several legal experts also state that there is no legal foundation for China's claim that it can prevent foreign naval vessels from operating within its Exclusive Economic Zone. For example, Raul Pedrozo, writing in the Chinese Journal of International Law, concludes that "all nations may legitimately engage in military activities in foreign exclusive economic zones, without prior notice to, or consent of, the coastal State concerned."
program challenges territorial claims on the world's oceans and airspace that are considered excessive by the United States. The United States position is an insistence that all nations must obey the international law of the sea as stated by the UN Law of the Sea Convention, though the United States has yet to ratify the treaty. Some coastal states make claims that the United States considers to be inconsistent with international law, which, if unchallenged, would limit navigational freedoms of the vessels and aircraft of the U.S. and other countries. The only case of a U.S. surveillance ship being captured was the USS Pueblo
(AGER-2) in 1968.
Impeccable class ocean surveillance ship
The Impeccable-class ocean-surveillance ship is a single ship class of United States Navy special mission-support ship. The original intention was to build six undersea ocean-surveillance ships carrying a SURTASS passive towed array and a Low Frequency Active transducer array...
ocean surveillance ship acquired by the U.S. Navy in 2001 and assigned to Military Sealift Command
Military Sealift Command
The Military Sealift Command is a United States Navy organization that controls most of the replenishment and military transport ships of the Navy. It first came into existence on 9 July 1949 when the Military Sea Transportation Service became solely responsible for the Department of Defense's...
’s Special Missions Program.
Construction
Impeccable was built by American Shipbuilding, Tampa, FloridaTampa, Florida
Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....
. The contract was awarded on 28 March 1991. The ship's keel was laid down on 15 March 1992, but the Tampa shipyards went bankrupt by November 1993. On 3 December 1992, the General Accounting Office published a report that concluded that T-AGOS 24-27 should not be built. Shortly afterwards the government decided to discontinue this class of ships, but the Impeccable was to be completed as the sole ship in its class. The hull was towed to Gulfport, Mississippi
Gulfport, Mississippi
Gulfport is the second largest city in Mississippi after the state capital Jackson. It is the larger of the two principal cities of the Gulfport-Biloxi, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula, Mississippi Combined Statistical Area. As of the...
, in 1995 where it was finished by Halter Marine Inc. She was launched on 28 August 1998 and was delivered to the Navy on 22 March 2001 which assigned her to the Military Sealift Command
Military Sealift Command
The Military Sealift Command is a United States Navy organization that controls most of the replenishment and military transport ships of the Navy. It first came into existence on 9 July 1949 when the Military Sea Transportation Service became solely responsible for the Department of Defense's...
(MSC) Special Missions Program.
Design
The ship is a designated T-AGOS vessel built to tow a Surveillance Towed Array Sensor SystemSurveillance Towed Array Sensor System
The AN/UQQ-2 Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System is a towed array sonar system of the United States Navy.SURTASS began as development program in 1973 using the new research vessel Moana Wave. In 1980 SURTASS passed OPEVAL...
. The ship's catamaran
Catamaran
A catamaran is a type of multihulled boat or ship consisting of two hulls, or vakas, joined by some structure, the most basic being a frame, formed of akas...
-type small waterplane area twin hull
Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull
A Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull, better known by the acronym SWATH, is a twin-hull ship design that minimizes hull cross section area at the sea's surface. Minimizing the ship's volume near the surface area of the sea, where wave energy is located, maximizes a vessel's stability, even in high...
(SWATH) design prevents the vessel from rolling in heavy seas and gives additional deck space for storing the acoustic equipment.
Mission
The mission of Impeccable is to directly support the Navy by using SURTASS passive and active low frequency sonarSonar
Sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...
arrays to detect and track undersea threats.
Low Frequency Active Sonar
- The SURTASS Low Frequency Active Sonar system, onboard Impeccable, commenced sea trials in late February 2004. During the spring and summer of 2004, Impeccable conducted five training missions in the Philippine Sea and the northwest Pacific Ocean . All LFA sonar operations included the operation of the High Frequency / Marine Mammal Mitigation sonar and compliance with all mitigation requirements.
- Total operational days onboard the Impeccable using the LFA array: 26.2 days with 63.0 hours of transmissions 9.4 days with 22.7 hours of transmissions 22.5 days with 39.4 hours of transmissions.
- The ship had five years of active and passive operations in the Western Pacific before the incident in the South China Sea.
South China Sea incidents
On March 5, 2009, the Impeccable was in the South China SeaSouth China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Singapore and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around...
monitoring submarine activity when it was approached by a People's Liberation Army Navy
People's Liberation Army Navy
The People's Liberation Army Navy is the naval branch of the People's Liberation Army , the military of the People's Republic of China. Until the early 1990s, the navy performed a subordinate role to the PLA Land Forces. Since then, it has undergone rapid modernisation...
(PLAN) frigate
Frigate
A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...
, which crossed its bow at a range of approximately 100 yards without first making contact. This was followed less than two hours later by a Chinese Y-12
Harbin Y-12
-See also:-Bibliography:* Taylor, John W R. . Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1988-89. Coulsdon, Surrey, UK: Jane's Information Group, 1988. ISBN 07106-0867-5....
aircraft, conducting 11 flyovers of Impeccable at an altitude of 600 feet (182.9 m) and a range from 100 foot. The frigate then crossed Impeccable bow again, this time at a range of approximately 400–500 yards.
On March 7, a Chinese intelligence ship contacted the Impeccable over bridge-to-bridge radio, calling her operations illegal and directing Impeccable to leave the area or "suffer the consequences."
Hainan
Hainan is the smallest province of the People's Republic of China . Although the province comprises some two hundred islands scattered among three archipelagos off the southern coast, of its land mass is Hainan Island , from which the province takes its name...
, China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
, when it was shadowed by five Chinese ships: a Bureau of Maritime Fisheries Patrol Vessel, a State Oceanographic Administration patrol vessel, a People's Liberation Army Navy ocean surveillance ship, and two Chinese-flagged naval trawler
Naval trawler
A naval trawler is a vessel built along the lines of a fishing trawler but fitted out for naval purposes. Naval trawlers were widely used during the First and Second world wars. Fishing trawlers were particularly suited for many naval requirements because they were robust boats designed to work...
s, which maneuvered close to the Impeccable, with two closing in to 50 feet (15.2 m), waving Chinese flags, and ordering the Impeccable from the area. The Impeccable sprayed water at one of the nearest Chinese ships; the Chinese sailors stripped down to their underwear and their vessel closed in to within 25 feet of the American ship. Shortly after the incident, the Impeccable radioed the Chinese crews, informing them of its intentions to leave the area, and requesting a safe pass to travel. When it was trying to leave the area, however, the two Chinese trawlers dropped pieces of wood in the Impeccables path and stopped directly in front of it, forcing it to do an emergency stop
Emergency stop
-United Kingdom driving test:For the practical section of the driving test, an examiner will often request the candidate to perform an emergency stop. This is done in order to evaluate how well a candidate can react to a dangerous situation and bring their motor vehicle to a safe stop. This is to...
to avoid a collision. Once the Impeccable got underway, the crew aboard one of the trawlers used a grappling hook to try to snag Impeccable's towed sonar array.
On March 12, 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
gave the go-ahead to send the guided missile destroyer
Guided missile destroyer
A guided missile destroyer is a destroyer designed to launch guided missiles. Many are also equipped to carry out anti-submarine, anti-air, and anti-surface operations. In the U.S...
USS Chung-Hoon
USS Chung-Hoon (DDG-93)
USS Chung-Hoon is an Arleigh Burke-class Aegis destroyer serving in the United States Navy. Chung-Hoon was named in honor of Rear Admiral Gordon Pai'ea Chung-Hoon , recipient of the Navy Cross and the Silver Star....
(DDG-93) to the South China Sea to protect the Impeccable while operating in that area.
Hans M. Kristensen
Hans M. Kristensen
Hans M. Kristensen is director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists. He writes about nuclear weapons policy there; he is coauthor of the column in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and the World Nuclear Forces appendix in Stockholm International Peace...
of the Federation of American Scientists
Federation of American Scientists
The Federation of American Scientists is a nonpartisan, 501 organization intent on using science and scientific analysis to attempt make the world more secure. FAS was founded in 1945 by scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic bombs...
has suggested that the incident may be related to the classified Type 093 submarine
Type 093 submarine
The Type 093 is a nuclear powered attack submarine class deployed by the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy. These boats are expected to replace the older Type 091 SSNs currently in service...
that the Chinese navy had recently deployed in the area.
Views on the legality of US, Chinese actions during these incidents
China and the United States both maintain the rightfulness of their actions based on competing interpretations of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the SeaUnited Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea , also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea treaty, is the international agreement that resulted from the third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea , which took place from 1973 through 1982...
.
Wang Dengping, political commissar of the Armament Department of Navy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, condemned the Impeccable's activities, stating that "Innocent passage by naval vessels from other countries in the Territorial waters
Territorial waters
Territorial waters, or a territorial sea, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is a belt of coastal waters extending at most from the baseline of a coastal state...
in the Special Economic Zone
Special Economic Zone
A Special Economic Zone is a geographical region that has economic and other laws that are more free-market-oriented than a country's typical or national laws...
is acceptable, but not allowed otherwise" under the Convention. Chinese actions were further defended by Professor Ji Guoxing of Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Shanghai Jiao Tong University or SJTU), sometimes referred to as Shanghai Jiaotong University , is a top public research university located in Shanghai, China. Shanghai Jiao Tong University is known as one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China...
who, writing in China Security, maintained that under the Convention, navigation rights in coastal countries' exclusive economic zones are "subject to the resource-related and environment-related laws and regulations of the coastal state," and China could exclude the Impeccable on this basis. Ji further asserted that the Convention's prohibition against gathering military intelligence in another country's territorial waters should be interpreted to also prohibit intelligence gathering in coastal countries' exclusive economic zones.
The United States by contrast, maintained that the Convention, which it has signed, but not yet ratified, authorizes activities such as those undertaken by Impeccable.
Several legal experts also state that there is no legal foundation for China's claim that it can prevent foreign naval vessels from operating within its Exclusive Economic Zone. For example, Raul Pedrozo, writing in the Chinese Journal of International Law, concludes that "all nations may legitimately engage in military activities in foreign exclusive economic zones, without prior notice to, or consent of, the coastal State concerned."
Standard response
In similar incidents the United States has a standard formal response. Their Freedom of NavigationFreedom of Navigation
Freedom of Navigation is a principle of customary International Law that, apart from the exceptions provided for in international law, ships flying the flag of any state shall not suffer interference from other states. This right is now also codified as article 87a of the 1982 United Nations...
program challenges territorial claims on the world's oceans and airspace that are considered excessive by the United States. The United States position is an insistence that all nations must obey the international law of the sea as stated by the UN Law of the Sea Convention, though the United States has yet to ratify the treaty. Some coastal states make claims that the United States considers to be inconsistent with international law, which, if unchallenged, would limit navigational freedoms of the vessels and aircraft of the U.S. and other countries. The only case of a U.S. surveillance ship being captured was the USS Pueblo
USS Pueblo (AGER-2)
USS Pueblo is an American ELINT and SIGINT Banner-class technical research ship which was boarded and captured by North Korean forces on January 23, 1968, in what is known as the Pueblo incident or alternatively as the Pueblo crisis or the Pueblo affair. Occurring less than a week after President...
(AGER-2) in 1968.
Honors and awards
Impeccable personnel are qualified for the following medals:- National Defense Service MedalNational Defense Service MedalThe National Defense Service Medal is a military service medal of the United States military originally commissioned by President Dwight D. Eisenhower...
See also
- USNS Victorious (T-AGOS-19)USNS Victorious (T-AGOS-19)USNS Victorious is a Victorious-class ocean surveillance ship which was acquired by the U.S. Navy in 1991 and assigned to the Military Sealift Command Special Missions Program.-Built in Morgan City, Louisiana:...
- USNS Stalwart (T-AGOS-1)
- Territorial watersTerritorial watersTerritorial waters, or a territorial sea, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is a belt of coastal waters extending at most from the baseline of a coastal state...
- United Nations Convention on the Law of the SeaUnited Nations Convention on the Law of the SeaThe United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea , also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea treaty, is the international agreement that resulted from the third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea , which took place from 1973 through 1982...
- New Star ship incidentNew Star ship incidentThe New Star ship incident was an event that occurred near the eastern port city of Vladivostok, when a Russian warship fired on a Chinese cargo vessel called the "New Star". The cargo ship was sunk on February 15, 2009, with Russia and China presenting different stories regarding the...
- Hainan Island incidentHainan Island incidentOn April 1, 2001, a mid-air collision between a United States Navy EP-3E ARIES II signals intelligence aircraft and a People's Liberation Army Navy J-8II interceptor fighter jet resulted in an international dispute between the United States and the People's Republic of China called the Hainan...
External links
- NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive - T-AGOS-23 Impeccable
- Special Mission Program
- T-AGOS 23 GlobalSecurity.org: T-AGOS 23 Impeccable