Boatfag Update Report #2
South China Sea and nearby Pacific
Short report, there isn’t much to see…except there are a lot more tracks on “Mil/SAR” vessels showing up than what is typically seen in the South China Sea. The SCS OPAREA usually shows only 1/3 of the number of tracks it has on scope right now. Having to post several screencaps of the area, from north to south, to get all of the tracks shown. The “Mil/Sar” vessels are shown in red.
Most of those tracks are sitting on top of the disputed islands that the ChiComs have moved onto, to try and take by force and just make everyone live with it (Paracels, Spratlys, Scarborough Shoals, etc.), so my money is that this is a show of force by the Chins due to having 2 US nuclear carriers in the immediate vicinity. Wherever they happen to be, I have no idea; however, there are a few interesting “unknowns” clustered together south of Taiwan at the entrance to the SCS OPAREA. The southernmost cluster seems the least likely, but with all the merchant shipping around, it would make the ChiComs think long and hard before flipping a vampire (USN term for a badguy air-to-surface missile) at our ships.
No further info to report at this time.