The recent close encounter between USS Decatur and the Chinese Luyang II–class guided-missile destroyer Lanzhou has attracted much attention in the media. There’s little doubt that the Chinese ship created a dangerous situation in breach of the Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, which requires a vessel that is overtaking another to keep out of its way until ‘finally past and clear’.

For a 7,000-tonne displacement ship to pass within 45 yards of another of 8,000 tonnes—an allegation apparently confirmed by the still video footage leaked by a US source—in such circumstances was also in contravention of the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea, which enjoins warship captains to act with prudence. Both China and the United States are signatories to this admittedly ‘voluntary and non-binding’ agreement.

But it’s possible to make too much of the incident. First, there have been much more serious encounters with Soviet units in the past—and close calls continue with Russian vessels. In 1988, the Soviet frigate Bezzavetny deliberately collided side-by-side with the American cruiser Yorktown in the Black Sea (an act known as ‘graunching’ or ‘shouldering off’). The destroyer Caron, in company with the Yorktown, was shouldered by a smaller Mirka-class corvette. The two American ships were conducting the same type of FONOPS as the Decatur in 2018—asserting their right to innocent passage through territorial waters without prior notification.

Second, contemporary FONOPS are not only about China. The most recent annual report by the US Department of Defense shows that the US Navy conducted such operations against 22 nations during 2017. These include countries as diverse as Slovenia and Oman, as well as Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. In the past, even Sweden has been challenged on its prior notification requirement.

America’s FONOPS are not a comment on the validity of China’s claims (or any other nation’s claims) to islands or rocks in the South China Sea, but they do show the US position (shared by numerous other governments, including Australia’s) that artificial islands don’t generate territorial entitlements. The US Navy’s operations were initially focused on the American interpretation of the Convention on the Law of the Sea Convention that warships aren’t required to give prior notification when conducting innocent passage through another nation’s territorial seas. China is of the view that such notification is required.

More recently, FONOPS in the Spratly Islands have been extended to include demonstrations of the US view that artificial islands built over features which don’t ‘dry’ at high water—that is, aren’t above the surface—do not generate a territorial sea of 12 nautical miles, but only a safety zone of 500 metres.

By passing both Gaven and Johnson reefs, USS Decatur dealt with both situations. Gaven Reef didn’t dry at high water before its artificial island was built; South Johnson did. But in stating that the Decatur passed by Johnson Reef, the US Navy didn’t specify whether the FONOP had been confined to South Johnson Reef. Vietnam has an outpost on North Johnson Reef and has been the subject of previous American operations for the same reason as China—to deny the claim that prior notification is required for innocent passage.

Furthermore, the US isn’t the only nation to conduct FONOPS in the area. The British amphibious ship Albion recently conducted an operation near the Paracel Islands, most likely to deny the excessive baselines that the Chinese have drawn around the group. The French haven’t been forthcoming about whether their frigate, the Vendémiaire, conducted a FONOP in the South China Sea early in 2018, but they didn’t deny it.

https://www.maritime-executive.com/editorials/u-s-fonops-aren-t-just-about-the-south-china-sea