Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
Henri K take on this undersea surveillance system. According to him they have been working on it for more than 10 years
According to , China has approved a project of 2 billion Yuan (~ € 274 million) to build a scientific observation and monitoring network Underwater National.
This network, part of the national program of major technological infrastructures, will initially establish a sub-network in the East China Sea on the east coast of China and another sub-network in the South China Sea. The construction should finish within 5 years.
The official communiqué indicates that the underwater surveillance network will enable the country to have a permanent observation platform on the ocean and the climatic evolution of the world.
A monitoring and data center will be established in Lingang, near the city of Shanghai. It will be used to harvest in real time and process the data transmitted, which will, according to the text, respond to a wide range of needs in the fields of Integrated Marine Environment Monitoring, Natural Disaster Prevention and Defense And national security.
And as one would expect, the approval of this project of underwater surveillance network by the National Commission for Development and Reform, an organization attached to the Council of State affairs, aroused much speculation "Fantasmatic" in the media - Some very sensational titles like "the nightmare of the American and Japanese submarines", "the great underwater wall" ... can be read.
What is it really? Is there a military listening network? What exactly is known about this project?
Compared to other western countries, which already had several underwater surveillance networks such as GEOSTAR, EMSO, ESONET and in Europe, and MARS and NEPTUNE in the United States and Canada, Structured observation of the ocean.
It was in 2007, 10 years ago, that the preliminary project "Experimental Technologies of the Network for the Permanent Observing of the Seabed" was finally integrated into Program 863, a national program launched in 1986 with the aim of To finance innovative projects and to increase the competitiveness of the country. At the time it was not by everyone, . But (周怀阳) of Tongji University, technical manager of this pre-study project at the time, believed in his potential.
After several tests with artificial basins, , in the Zhoushan . This first-ever Chinese submarine network, co-developed by five Chinese universities, including Tongji University, consists of a scientific measurement node and a ground control station connected by electro-optical cables that measure 1.1 km.
This scientific node includes Conductivity Temperature Depth (CTD), ADVP (Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler), ADV (Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter) and OBS (Optical Backscatter Point Sensor) for example. And the same node was sent to the United States in 2011, and successfully tested on the US MARS network for 6 months, 900 meters deep.
A seabed module co-developed by Tongji University (Photo: Tongji University)
It is this first network of experimental observation that will become the prototype of the national network approved by the Chinese government this year, and things will take a decisive turn and accelerate in 2012.
Indeed, in , by the State Council of China, the "National Underwater Surveillance Network" is not only one of the 16 priority projects of the plan but Also takes the lead of the list of it. Since then, several research institutes in different fields have been assigned to the project, including , which together with Tongji University will now co-pilot the deployment of the network in the China Sea Eastern and southern China Sea.
This network of underwater surveillance is therefore a priori scientific use, but as Professor ZHOU, now the technical manager of the official project, underlines, can have a "peripheral" contribution to the defense and security of the country.
This point can also be seen in the number of research papers published over the past 20 years on this type of underwater observation network, only 7 from the Chinese naval entities.
The number of university papers on underwater network since 1989
From a technological point of view too, at least on the part accessible to the public, one does not notice a concentration of acoustic sensors or variation of magnetic field which could lead to believe a military oriented network.
Of course, in a global strategy of the Chinese government that wants to rely more on civilian entities for the development of civil-military technologies, the ocean data collected can also be used for military purposes, for submarine mapping ( Not necessarily geographical) for example, even if this is not the primary objective.
And it is probably to take into account this civil-military integration that the choice of general architecture of the Chinese network has tended towards that of the cable network, not modules not physically connected to the ground.
In fact, part of the oceanic data does not need to be recovered in real time if the use is limited to scientific research, therefore some purely civil networks, such as MEUST (Mediterranean Eurocentre for Underwater Sciences and Technologies), driven by two institutes of the CNRS, have opted (at least partially) for the solution of isolated modules where certain data are sent or recovered only periodically. This makes it possible to considerably reduce the cost of implementation compared to a wired network.
The components of the Chinese underwater surveillance network
For the moment the Chinese have very little communication about the exact location where they plan to deploy their first two underwater surveillance networks.
It is only known that for that in the East China Sea, it will be a priori installed 20 km from the shores of Shanghai, thus within the territorial waters.
Four large submarine connectors (CTAs), each managing several Scientific Instruments Interface Module (SIIM) modules within a radius of a few tens of kilometers on the seabed, will be connected to the Lingang processing center with electro-optical cables .
Drones, such as submarine gliders, ROVs and AUVs, will also be part of the system.
The location of the 4 submarine connectors of the surveillance network in the East China Sea.
As for the South China Sea, no information has been revealed today, but it is possible that it is deployed off the island of Hainan, before extending perhaps further.
China's ambition will probably not be limited to neighboring maritime areas. Indeed, in an article published on the SOA (State Oceanic Administation) Weixin in March this year, we learn that the national underwater surveillance network is not the only one envisaged by the country.
that will cover the coastal regions that are among those considered by the "Silk Sea Route" strategy as well as the two poles. For this, China intends to participate "actively" in international programs.
The objective, quoted an SOA official and quoted by the article, is to build a global network of ocean monitoring, with a particular focus on China's maritime areas and also some "targeted" areas.
To be continued.
Henri K.
According to , China has approved a project of 2 billion Yuan (~ € 274 million) to build a scientific observation and monitoring network Underwater National.
This network, part of the national program of major technological infrastructures, will initially establish a sub-network in the East China Sea on the east coast of China and another sub-network in the South China Sea. The construction should finish within 5 years.
The official communiqué indicates that the underwater surveillance network will enable the country to have a permanent observation platform on the ocean and the climatic evolution of the world.
A monitoring and data center will be established in Lingang, near the city of Shanghai. It will be used to harvest in real time and process the data transmitted, which will, according to the text, respond to a wide range of needs in the fields of Integrated Marine Environment Monitoring, Natural Disaster Prevention and Defense And national security.
And as one would expect, the approval of this project of underwater surveillance network by the National Commission for Development and Reform, an organization attached to the Council of State affairs, aroused much speculation "Fantasmatic" in the media - Some very sensational titles like "the nightmare of the American and Japanese submarines", "the great underwater wall" ... can be read.
What is it really? Is there a military listening network? What exactly is known about this project?
Compared to other western countries, which already had several underwater surveillance networks such as GEOSTAR, EMSO, ESONET and in Europe, and MARS and NEPTUNE in the United States and Canada, Structured observation of the ocean.
It was in 2007, 10 years ago, that the preliminary project "Experimental Technologies of the Network for the Permanent Observing of the Seabed" was finally integrated into Program 863, a national program launched in 1986 with the aim of To finance innovative projects and to increase the competitiveness of the country. At the time it was not by everyone, . But (周怀阳) of Tongji University, technical manager of this pre-study project at the time, believed in his potential.
After several tests with artificial basins, , in the Zhoushan . This first-ever Chinese submarine network, co-developed by five Chinese universities, including Tongji University, consists of a scientific measurement node and a ground control station connected by electro-optical cables that measure 1.1 km.
This scientific node includes Conductivity Temperature Depth (CTD), ADVP (Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler), ADV (Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter) and OBS (Optical Backscatter Point Sensor) for example. And the same node was sent to the United States in 2011, and successfully tested on the US MARS network for 6 months, 900 meters deep.
A seabed module co-developed by Tongji University (Photo: Tongji University)
It is this first network of experimental observation that will become the prototype of the national network approved by the Chinese government this year, and things will take a decisive turn and accelerate in 2012.
Indeed, in , by the State Council of China, the "National Underwater Surveillance Network" is not only one of the 16 priority projects of the plan but Also takes the lead of the list of it. Since then, several research institutes in different fields have been assigned to the project, including , which together with Tongji University will now co-pilot the deployment of the network in the China Sea Eastern and southern China Sea.
This network of underwater surveillance is therefore a priori scientific use, but as Professor ZHOU, now the technical manager of the official project, underlines, can have a "peripheral" contribution to the defense and security of the country.
This point can also be seen in the number of research papers published over the past 20 years on this type of underwater observation network, only 7 from the Chinese naval entities.
The number of university papers on underwater network since 1989
From a technological point of view too, at least on the part accessible to the public, one does not notice a concentration of acoustic sensors or variation of magnetic field which could lead to believe a military oriented network.
Of course, in a global strategy of the Chinese government that wants to rely more on civilian entities for the development of civil-military technologies, the ocean data collected can also be used for military purposes, for submarine mapping ( Not necessarily geographical) for example, even if this is not the primary objective.
And it is probably to take into account this civil-military integration that the choice of general architecture of the Chinese network has tended towards that of the cable network, not modules not physically connected to the ground.
In fact, part of the oceanic data does not need to be recovered in real time if the use is limited to scientific research, therefore some purely civil networks, such as MEUST (Mediterranean Eurocentre for Underwater Sciences and Technologies), driven by two institutes of the CNRS, have opted (at least partially) for the solution of isolated modules where certain data are sent or recovered only periodically. This makes it possible to considerably reduce the cost of implementation compared to a wired network.
The components of the Chinese underwater surveillance network
For the moment the Chinese have very little communication about the exact location where they plan to deploy their first two underwater surveillance networks.
It is only known that for that in the East China Sea, it will be a priori installed 20 km from the shores of Shanghai, thus within the territorial waters.
Four large submarine connectors (CTAs), each managing several Scientific Instruments Interface Module (SIIM) modules within a radius of a few tens of kilometers on the seabed, will be connected to the Lingang processing center with electro-optical cables .
Drones, such as submarine gliders, ROVs and AUVs, will also be part of the system.
The location of the 4 submarine connectors of the surveillance network in the East China Sea.
As for the South China Sea, no information has been revealed today, but it is possible that it is deployed off the island of Hainan, before extending perhaps further.
China's ambition will probably not be limited to neighboring maritime areas. Indeed, in an article published on the SOA (State Oceanic Administation) Weixin in March this year, we learn that the national underwater surveillance network is not the only one envisaged by the country.
that will cover the coastal regions that are among those considered by the "Silk Sea Route" strategy as well as the two poles. For this, China intends to participate "actively" in international programs.
The objective, quoted an SOA official and quoted by the article, is to build a global network of ocean monitoring, with a particular focus on China's maritime areas and also some "targeted" areas.
To be continued.
Henri K.
