China’s burgeoning undersea sensor net aims to turn the ocean transparent

The People’s Liberation Army is building an “invisible net” across the western Pacific, a five-layer, seabed-to-space sensor architecture known as the Transparent Ocean strategy that challenges the ability of U.S. and allied submarines (our “black sharks”) to maneuver and hide.

The threat was on display in August during the PLA Navy and Russia’s Joint Sea-2025 exercises near Vladivostok. In joint anti-submarine warfare drills, Chinese and Russian forces linked their communications and shared hydro-meteorological and air-sea tracks in real time. The goal, according to Chinese state media, was to leave deep-diving submarines with nowhere to hide. 

This exercise served as an early demonstration of a mature, automated kill web that China plans to spread across multiple seas and oceans. Intended to enable persistent, real-time tracking across vast areas, the web will consist of five layers.

Read more at Defense One