First Japan-UK submarine warfare exercise held with China in its sights
- First-of-its kind joint exercise in Japanese waters saw two nations put each other’s navies through their paces in service of a ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’
- Japan’s experience of tracking Soviet vessels during Cold War helps it monitor ‘threat posed by China’s growing submarine capabilities’, an analyst said
The two-day drill, held in Japanese waters last month, is thought to have featured HMS Artful, a state-of-the-art nuclear-powered British submarine on its maiden operational deployment to the Asia-Pacific as part of a Royal Navy task force centred on the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.
Neither government has confirmed which vessels took part in the exercise, but in August HMS Artful docked in Busan for replenishment, according to South Korean media reports, indicating the Astute-class submarine’s earlier presence in the region.
Japan, for its part, likely sought to test the abilities of its diesel-electric Soryu-class attack submarines – widely regarded as among the stealthiest in the world – against the larger, nuclear-powered British vessel that does not have to surface as frequently as its Japanese counterparts.