7th Fleet Focus: Feels Like Yesterday

Somehow this just fits the theme of the week. From Friday's news sitting in the stack of stuff.

A Russian navy intelligence ship has been in the Pacific off Japan's southern Okinawa island, possibly to monitor radio wave data from US forces, Japan's Kyodo News reported Friday.

A Japanese destroyer found the ship moving and stopping repeatedly in the high seas some 30-60 kilometers (18-37 miles) east of the island of Okinawa on Wednesday, the report said citing Japanese Defense Ministry sources.

While this is nothing new, and certainly something that goes back decades in the context of Russia and the US, it really does highlight how the US Navy is ahead a generation. I'll stand corrected next time we send a surface ship to spy a couple dozen miles off Vladivostok.

After all, we do this from an invisible position underwater now, while China and Russia are still using ships on the surface. Too bad no photo was published, would have been fun to look at all the gear.