West PH Sea: US Navy ship spotted near Scarborough amid China ‘patrol’

This photo taken on February 15, 2024, shows an aerial view of Scarborough Shoal in the disputed South China Sea. FILE PHOTO/Agence France-Presse

MANILA, Philippines — A United States Naval Ship (USNS) was spotted near the country’s landmass while China Coast Guard (CCG) was conducting what it considers a patrol around Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal on Sunday morning, a West Philippine Sea monitor said.

As of 1:37 a.m., the USNS Victorious was located near the Luzon landmass but still outside the country’s 12-nautical-mile territorial sea during China’s “patrol,” previously reported by its state media CCTV, according to SeaLight director and retired US Air Force Colonel Ray Powell.

Powell told INQUIRER.net on Sunday that the presence of the USNS Victorious is “not too unusual,” as it was last seen in the same area in September.

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The Chinese fleet also consisted of three large CCG ships and six militia vessels, he said.

“The three CCG ships have been there for a while,” he said over X. “The six militia just arrived Christmas night.”

However, Powell quickly noted that he could not say if there were naval ships from the US and China during their respective activities since warships typically — and could legally — turn off their Automatic Identification Systems (AIS).

“I can’t track PLA (People’s Liberation Army) Navy ships though, since they don’t broadcast AIS signals,” Powell said. “I can’t track US Navy ships either.”

“I can track the Victorious because it’s Military Sealift Command (technically civilian) and does broadcast AIS,” he also pointed out.

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USNS ships like Victorious are non-commissioned ships that belong to the United States Navy.

Beijing’s patrol is based on its assertion of sovereignty in almost the entire South China Sea, including most of the West Philippine Sea, or the western section of the country inside its 200-mile exclusive economic zone.

In 2012, Manila and Beijing engaged in a tense standoff over Panatag Shoal, which ended with Manila withdrawing its ships, allowing Beijing to establish effective control over the shoal’s lagoon to this day.

A year later, Manila lodged an arbitration case against Beijing after this standoff, which led to a historic 2016 arbitral award that effectively rejected China’s sweeping claims in the West Philippine Sea.