By Chris Philips, Managing Editor
In April, the
US Navy christened the first of its newest class of destroyers. Costing more
than $3 billion, the 610-foot-long USS Zumwalt, named after the late
Admiral Elmo “Bud” Zumwalt boasts advanced technology including a composite
deckhouse with hidden radar and sensors, and the Navy says the vessel’s odd
angular shape will present the radar profile of a small fishing boat.
If the US Navy
is hoping the fishing boat camouflage will protect the new high-tech destroyer
from aggressors on the open seas, they might want to rethink he design. A month
after the Zumwalt was christened, a Vietnamese fishing
boat was rammed and sunk by a Chinese vessel.
According to
the Vietnamese government, forty Chinese fishing vessels had encircled a group
of Vietnamese boats fishing in the area, which it claims is within Vietnam’s
exclusive economic zone. The 10 fishermen onboard the boat were rescued by
other Vietnamese boats after the incident, which occurred not far from a
Chinese oil rig located near the contested Paracel Islands, which are claimed
by both China and Vietnam.
Last year,
Vietnam’s government lodged a protest after it said a Chinese ship fired on one
of its fishing vessels near the Paracel Islands and caused a cabin fire on that
boat.
Thankfully the
dangers to fishermen in US waters don’t yet include aggression from Chinese
vessels.
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