Chinese and U.S. Navies Engaging in Intense Electronic Warfare Battles Near Philippines - Reports

Amid escalating U.S. military involvement in Sino-Philippine territorial disputes in the South China Sea, specifically surrounding the Second Thomas Shoal of the Spratly Islands, the U.S. Navy and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy reportedly engaged in intensive electronic warfare battles in the area. This was reported by multiple local and U.S. sources, but has yet to be officially confirmed. Electronic warfare engagements reportedly lasted a full twelve hours in the northern Philippines, and as a result American warships “faced an unprecedented crisis—screens full of static and a total loss of GPS signals,” with the fleet withdrawing due to the serious disruption of communication and navigation capabilities. The Navy’s electronic warfare equipment was assessed to be a full generation behind that of China, fuelling significant criticisms domestically. The course of the U.S. response remains uncertain, but an upgrading of electronic warfare systems on ships across the fleet, and initiation of in depth studies of Chinese capabilities based on the latest combat experience, are both likely possibilities.

The conflict highlighted prevailing concerns raised in the Western world regarding the consequences of the vast discrepancies in the Chinese and American industrial bases, and in particular their shipbuilding and electronics industries, for the balance of power between the two states. Chinese surface combatants are on average decades newer than their American counterparts, with the bulk of its fleet being comprised of ship classes first commissioned in the late 2010s, where the U.S. Navy’s newest widely used surface combatant the Arleigh Burke Class has been in commission since 1991. The capabilities of Chinese warships and electronic warfare assets has stimulated growing interest in the United States in acquisitions of new generations of assets, including a new class of destroyer, although issues with the Littoral Class combat ship and Zumwalt Class destroyer leading both programs to be considered abject failures has raised questions regarding industry’s ability to develop a next generation destroyer. As a result new Chinese ships such as the Type 055 Class are expected to remain unrivalled for the foreseeable future.