USA TODAY 12 April 2001
Spy planes to continue flying near China, Pentagon says
By Andrea StoneWASHINGTON -- If Chinese leaders think their standoff with the United States will end U.S. spying off their coast, they likely are in for a letdown, military analysts say.
Chinese officials have demanded a ban on such flights. And they've made it clear the issue will top the agenda when the United States and China meet next Wednesday to discuss, among other things, the return of the Navy plane that collided with its fighter jet.
Pentagon officials have said the flights will not stop, and administration officials agree. ''With respect to the right of the United States to continue to operate our aircraft in international airspace, that really is a given,'' Vice President Cheney said Wednesday. ''That is not a subject that we would want to concede on.''
Analysts say that U.S. electronic spy planes monitor the Chinese coast several times a month and that the flights are vital to protecting allies in the region. Although the flights were suspended after the collision April 1, a Navy EP-3 mission is reportedly scheduled for this week. It is not clear whether it will proceed.
The EP-3 planes are part of a squadron based at a naval base in Washington state. Their mission is to collect and process signals from radar and other electronic communications, such as telephone calls, computer or fax communications and satellite transmissions.
Analysts say the United States has no choice but to continue the missions. ''If we let the Chinese draw the line, are we going to allow the North Koreans and Iraqis and Libyans to draw that line?'' asks John Pike, who heads GlobalSecurity.org, a defense research group. ''Are we going to give everyone who asks for one a 'get out of jail free' card? I don't think so.''
Pike says caving to Chinese demands would set a bad legal precedent because the flights are outside the 12-mile limit of China's territorial waters. If anything, China's custody of the EP-3 is likely to ''increase rather than decrease'' U.S. spy flights in the region, says Christopher Bolkcom, a military aviation analyst at the Congressional Research Service.
''If we want to find out if the Chinese have exploited their knowledge of the EP-3, then one way to do it is to collect more information on them,'' he says.
Even so, the incident may change the way the flights are conducted in the short run. Bolkcom says planes may fly a little farther offshore or with fighter-jet escorts. He also expects the Air Force to speed development of the Global Hawk, an unmanned aerial vehicle that can monitor radio and radar signals.
It's not as if China does not conduct similar flights.
Analysts say that China patrols near Taiwan and Vietnam. But while the United States has a global reach, China does not venture far from its shores and likely does not have the intelligence-gathering capability of the EP-3.
Nearly a dozen Navy EP-3s and 14 Air Force RC-135 Rivet Joint reconnaissance planes patrol the world. The EP-3 in China was based in Okinawa. Planes flying from Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean monitor India and Pakistan. Those in the Persian Gulf watch Iraq and Iran. Squadrons based in Spain and Crete listen to electronic transmissions in Libya and Russia. And planes flying from Puerto Rico keep tabs on Central American drug smugglers.
Although satellites could pick up some of the slack if flights are canceled or cut back, officials are loath to abandon piloted spying.
''The advantage of airborne reconnaissance is they can stay some place longer,'' says Martin Faga, former head of National Reconnaissance Office, which operates spy satellites. ''And an airplane stimulates the environment -- people turn on their radars to look at it.''
© Copyright 2001 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
