Spy plane expected to fly to China. This is cool and funny, the ultimate in spite or defiance?

U.S. prepares another spy planeBy RICHARD SALE, Terrorism Correspondent
WASHINGTON, April 11 (UPI) -- Even as the 24 crew members of a downed spy
plane are on their way home from detention on a Chinese island, the United
States is preparing to send another Navy EP-3E Aires spy plane down the
China coast "within the next week," according to an administration official
who spoke on condition of anonymity.
This source added that last week, at the height of the tense, high-stakes
standoff between China and the United States over the April 1 collision
between an EP-3E Navy spy plane and an F-8 Chinese fighter, the U.S.
Department of Defense had sent another electronic intelligence plane on a
mission along the China coast.
According to John Pike, weapons expert for GlobalSecurity.org, an
Alexandra, Va.-based think tank, the spy plane was not "definitely not an
(Navy) Aries," but either an Air Force Rivet Joint flight or Navy P-3 Orion
anti-submarine aircraft.
A U.S. defense department spokesman refused to confirm the flight. "That's
classified information,'' he said.
But Pike said U.S. intelligence officials had told him that an Aires
flight was due to be sent soon.
Mike O'Hanlon, Chinese expert at The Brookings Institution, said that he
had been told that a U.S. intelligence-gathering flight had flown off
China's coast last week. He said they were hard to stop.
"These flights are planned a long time in advance," O'Hanlon said. He also
said that U.S. officials had told him that Aries flights targeting China
were to resume soon.
U.S. intelligence officials told United Press International that a
multi-billion dollar U.S. intelligence operation is flying the same number
of intelligence-gathering planes as were flown "at the height of the Cold
War," in the words of one analyst.
"We have the obligation to maintain our vigilance," another administration
official said. He declined comment on further Aires flights. But Richard
Fisher, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation - a Washington-based
defense think tank -- said: "These flights should resume to make the point
that this is international airspace, and we have the right to conduct
surveillance that is deemed vital to our national security."
He added that the flights were necessary "for the protection of American
servicemen."
Rivet Joint missions, using gray-and-white EP-135 electronic signals
intelligence aircraft, have long been used in Europe, the Middle East, and
the Far East, to collect intelligence on communications. Formerly, they were
used to gather information on Soviet air defense radars, and have been
reassigned to Chinese air defense and other systems, said sources.
Rivet Joint aircraft have rounded black noses and can stay in the air for
10 hours before refueling. They have standing mission requirement focusing
on collection of information about Chinese submarine and other ship
activity, air defenses, communications and short-range tactical signals
intelligence.
At the height of the Cold War, Rivet Joint flew about 70 missions a month
in the Far East and Western Europe, one U.S. official told UPI.
The number of missions being flown today by Aries, Rivet Joint or P-3
Orion aircraft targeting China number above 200 per year, U.S. sources said.
"This is a multi-billion dollar effort," said a U.S. defense official.
Rivet Joint flights are run by the Defense Department, which processes
requests for flights from regional commanders, forwards them to the Defense
Intelligence Agency, which, in turn, gives them to the Central Intelligence
Agency's SIGINT (Signal Intelligence) committee.
The forward base for Rivet Joint flights is Offut Air Force Base near
Omaha, Nebraska with forward operating bases in Kadena, Okinawa, Eilson Air
Force Base in Alaska, and Hellenikon Air Force Base near Athens, sourcessaid.
In the 1980s, the Strategic Air Command had 18 Rivet Joint planes in Latin
America that were used to support government troops in El Salvador and
U.S.-backed Contra rebels, flying out of Howard Air Force Base in Panama. A
portion of these have been reassigned.
U.S. officials said that the monitoring equipment aboard the Rivet Joint
planes is operated by the Air Force's Electronic Security Command (ESC),
which relays the data in real-time to National Security Agency headquarters.
The ESC also operates a number of ground listening stations around theworld.
The P-Orion is an anti-submarine warfare aircraft equipped with the latest
underwater tracking devices and capable of tracing back any transmission or
emissions to the original sender ship. It would play a critical role in
wartime by revealing the whereabouts of hostile subs and destroying the
surprise on which they depend, U.S. sources said.
According to Pike, the reaction of the Chinese military to Rivet Joint
flights is "less intense" than its reactions to Aries flights although the
electronic suites of both are "almost equivalent."--
Copyright 2001 by United Press International.All rights reserved.

Sometimes I am glad to be a US citizen. That's exactly what I'd do, send another one, and make it known, just to piss people off.

... I don't know who to be angry with anymore, the American President or the whole American government. In the shadow of war, with innocent American soldiers in the hands of the "enemy"� and the Americans are continuing their campaign against�.. wait, what are they campaigning against? I'll be damned if I understand their dilemma� Instead of peacefully trying to settle things in a decent way, they are openly committing "acts of war." If I were the Chinese I would take this as a threat and use all available power to destroy those spy planes or at least capture them and hold them as, like� they're are doing now. I no longer even see what the Chinese are doing wrong. Their protecting themselves against a real national threat. --"These flights should resume to make the point that this is international airspace, and we have the right to conduct surveillance that is deemed vital to our national security."-- National security?� the only one that I can see making problems, are te Americans (as in government). What if the Chinese tried to do this, fly spy planes "critical to their national security" over America? Well the Americans would shoot down the plane and declare war. All the Chinese's fault right? They may have been any "enemy" in the past but here I think America is taking their righteousness to far. --""This is a multi-billion dollar effort," said a U.S. defense official."� again I'm confused, what exactly is this effort against. If they were to spend that money in the direction of a better understanding between their two countries, I can't see we'd have a problem in the first place. I think we have spent to long thinking that the Americans (again their government) are always in te right, but here they're wrong for once... can you imagine that. No, they've always been the good guys, the hero that prevails, but it's gone to far. In the light of their glory, their power, and their righteousness they seem to have been blinded and lost site of the truth. I can't see who's fault it is any more... in my opinion te Americans should trade their "President" for the poor imprisoned soldiers that have become te victims of this international sharade. And then we could all forget about him, like they seem to have forgotten the soldiers down in China, 'cause that's all it is anymore politics and saving face. Maybe I just don't get it... I suppose it might be the end of the world if America (Bush in general) said, simply, "sorry", or if China got along with America... sort of hard seeing how America is acting these days. Or wait.... I've got it wrong, that's what's gonna happen if they don't do those simple things� who here wants to engage in Nuclear War over these petty differences, over a simple apology.

You're angry because you only have certain pieces of the puzzle. If you were an omnipresent entity then you would just be shocked.

Bush needs a big fight to justify his reasons to rebuild our military (Thanks to Klinton)

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... I don't know who to be angry with anymore, the American President or the whole American government. In the shadow of war, with innocent American soldiers in the hands of the "enemy"� and the Americans are continuing their campaign against�.. wait, what are they campaigning against? I'll be damned if I understand their dilemma�

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OK, here's a summery for those that don't watch the news.

When China became a communist country the capitalists held out in Tiwan and became their own country. This pisses of the Chinese to no end, so ocasionaly they make a big fuss of rattling their sabers about getting Tiwan back. Tiwan is an aly of the us, and is currently trying to purchase some destroyers from the US government for self defence. This also pisses off China so things are pretty tense. The spy plane was helping the US keep tabs on this situation. So by holding the prisioners the Chinese were most likely trying to blackmail the US into not selling the destroyers, leaving Tiwan open for attack.

I knew this. April 18th is the meeting. and president Bush will make his final dicission april 30th if he is in fact going to sell weapons. I think its a big fucking bad idea. I think this could start WWIII chinese are already talking about it.

I just wonder how russia will feel.

The chinese have a billion people. That seems a little overcrowded. We need a war to help thin their ranks.

WTF? thats not cool. i hope you're kidding.


What about india? they are just under 1 billion. like 950 million. And their land mass is 1/4th of china. so that means they are nearly 4 times more crowded. should we thin them out as well? and Pakistand is like 300 million and half the size of india in land mass so they are pretty over crowded as well.

sometimes you guys scare me.

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Originally posted by Prometheus:
The chinese have a billion people. That seems a little overcrowded. We need a war to help thin their ranks.

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Hopefully they'll do it to themselves.