Chinese missile tracking spy ship ‘Yuan Wang 5’ is set to re-enter the Indian Ocean (at present, it is near Indonesia), a development that indicates an attempt to track India’s long-range missile test scheduled between December 15 and 16.
India has come out with a notice to airmen (NOTAM), announcing that it would be needing 5,400 km of the air space starting from APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha in a southerly direction over the Bay of Bengal. The 5,400-km-specific NOTAM indicates that an ‘Agni-V’ series missile could be test-fired, a source who tracks missiles said. But nothing could be speculated on the nature of the missile, he added.
‘Yuan Wang 5’ is a missile-tracking ship and it is in the international waters. Last month, another vessel ‘Yuan Wang 6’ had entered the Indian Ocean, coinciding with a planned Indian missile launch which was then deferred.
In August, ‘Yuan Wang 5’ was slated to visit Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port. When India protested with the neighbouring country, Colombo deferred the visit of the Chinese vessel.
Built at Jiangnan shipyard in China, ‘Yuan Wang 5’ entered service in 2007. Termed as a “research vessel” by the Chinese, it is a spy ship equipped with a tracking technology on board for transoceanic aerospace observation. It has an effective range of almost 700 to 750 km radius, which means that the vessel can spy on the India’s planned missile test.
A US Department of Defence report titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China” released on November 30 describes how the Strategic Support Force (SSF) and the Space Systems Department (SSD) of China operate such assets.
“The SSF operates tracking, telemetry and command stations in several locations worldwide. The SFF and the SSD operates Yuan Wang space support ships that track satellite and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launches,” read the report.
