Chinese undersea device found near Bali may be part of something bigger

China's Transparent Ocean Program calls for a layered seafloor-to-space network of monitoring devices. (ABC News: Cordelia Brown) Link copiedShareShare articleThe discovery of a Chinese undersea monitoring device in a strategic Indonesian waterway last month came as little surprise to maritime defence experts. However, some argue it has real implications for Australia's defence strategy. China has long been pushing to develop its sub-surface awareness capabilities, with one of the major initiatives known as the Transparent Ocean Program. Naval strategist Jennifer Parker said China saw the United States' undersea warfare capabilities — especially its submarines and its ability to detect Chinese ones — as a strategic disadvantage it needed to address. A large torpedo-shaped device discovered near an island in a strategically important strait between Bali and Lombok has been identified by defence analysts as a Chinese undersea monitoring system. The 3.7-metre torpedo-shaped object was picked up by a fisherman near the Lombok Strait, one of the few routes deep enough for submarines to transit between Australian waters and the South China Sea without surfacing. Marcus Hellyer, head of research at Strategic Analysis Australia, said the broader Chinese effort was initially focused on the waters near China in an "anti-access area denial strategy" as Beijing sought to detect US and allied nuclear submarines deployed to help during a potential conflict over Taiwan. But now Beijing has transformed its naval forces into a "blue-water navy" capable of sustaining operations across open oceans. A map published in 2019 by the Ocean University of China showing locations of deployed observation buoys, with a concentration in the Luzon Strait between Taiwan and the Philippines. (Supplied: Ocean University of China) Ryan Martinson, from the US Naval War College's China Maritime Studies Institute, said the "deep sea domain" had been a research priority for China at least since President Xi Jinping came to power. "The Transparent Ocean Project is an outgrowth of China's top-level interest in developing deep-sea knowledge and capabilities," Professor Martinson said. "Aside from the national security implications, Beijing wants to be able to exploit marine resources in deep-sea areas, especially seabed minerals in high seas areas." Chinese oceanographer Wu Lixin first outlined the Transparent Ocean Program in 2014, calling for the creation of a real-time three-dimensional observation system in the "two oceans and one sea" — a reference to the western Pacific, Indian Ocean and South China Sea. Professor Wu proposed a four-layer network that would include satellites, unmanned surface vessels, autonomous underwater vehicles and a seabed observation network. The layers would be linked by a "Deep Blue Brain" with artificial intelligence processing and managing the information. The Chinese research vessel Dong Fang Hong 3 has reportedly been involved in sea-floor mapping under the Transparent Ocean Program. (Reuters: China News Service) Professor Wu and colleagues provided an update on the program in a paper in 2020, saying breakthroughs had been made in research and development and more than 100 surface buoys and sub-surface moorings had been deployed in the "two oceans and one sea". The program has also been linked to wide-scale ocean floor mapping. Professor Wu and China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to the ABC's request for comment. Professor Martinson said the Transparent Ocean Program was a "massive effort" to "develop exquisite real-time knowledge of the marine environment". According to Professor Wu, the data obtained through the Transparent Ocean Program would benefit research into areas such as weather prediction and climate change. However, many analysts argue that under China's "military-civil fusion" policy, it would also be used by the People's Liberation Army Navy. Military analysts Peter Singer and Tye Graham argue that Transparent Ocean's ultimate goal is to create an "invisible net" that challenges the ability of US and allied submarines to manoeuvre and hide. They point to People's Liberation Army (PLA) theorists who have called for the development of a "maritime adaptive kill web" described by Dr Singer and Mr Graham as a "resilient, mesh-style network that offers multiple paths from sensor to shooter and promises instant bypasses for any node failures". "A mature Transparent Ocean system is designed to automate this flow at scale," they write. The Indonesian Navy took the device to the Mataram naval base on Lombok for further investigation. (Supplied: North Lombok Police/Republika) Dr Singer told the ABC that the discovery of the monitoring device in the Lombok Strait "shows the extent of both China's reach and its undersea ambitions". However, which Chinese entity installed it and why remains unclear. At the time it was found early last month, the Indonesian Navy said th

Chinese undersea device found near Bali may be part of something bigger

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