US Sides with Philippines Against South China Sea Nature Preserve
the U.S. stood with Philippines and rejected what he described as China's "destabilizing plans" involving Scarborough Reef."Beijing claiming Scarborough Reef as a nature preserve is yet another coercive attempt to advance sweeping territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea at the expense of its neighbors," Rubio said in a statement.China's plan to establish a nature reserve in the Scarborough Shoal has raised fear among Filipino fishermen, who fear that it could make it harder for them to operate in the disputed South China Sea atoll, which is under
China Approves to Establish Nature Reserve in South China Sea
China has approved the creation of a national nature reserve at thedisputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, the government said on Wednesday, as Beijing moves to reinforce its territorial claims and maritime rights in the contested region.Scarborough Shoal, which Beijing calls Huangyan Island and which is known in the Philippines as the Panatag Shoal, has long been a flashpoint in the dispute between Beijing and Manila over sovereignty over and fishing access to a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce.The Philippine embassy in Beijing
Quantum Sensing Beats GPS-Denied Navigational Challenges
a fake GPS signal is used to confuse or disrupt operations. The intent can vary and has been suggested to relate to preventing the monitoring of infrastructure. This is a major concern for the commercial shipping industry, as it has occurred in many locations, including the Port of Shanghai and the South China Sea,” says Michael J. Biercuk, CEO and Founder of Q-CTRL.Additionally, the adoption of autonomous systems and vessels is hampered by the unreliability of GPS.Standard navigation systems rely on GPS, with mission-critical systems using the dead reckoning provided by inertial navigation systems
Building AI’s Subsea Cable Infrastructure
and other hazards.In the Jan/Feb issue of Marine Technology Reporter, Alisa Reiner explains why risk mitigation is so important: “Subsea infrastructure is increasingly threatened by activities that fall within the realm of plausibly deniable, sub-threshold operations.”She notes that the South China Sea and the Red Sea have been identified as chokepoints for undersea cables. In March 2024, several major cables in the Red Sea were cut, impacting 25% of data traffic between Asia and Europe.“These threats are not just isolated incidents but may form part of broader strategic maneuvers
China Seizes Underwater “Lighthouses”
.The ministry said it had uncovered devices that had been hidden on the ocean floor and were sending back information that could "pre-set the field for battle," in an article on its official WeChat account, China's most popular social media app.Recent sea and air confrontations in the South China Sea between China and the Philippines over competing territorial claims in the highly strategic waterway have raised the risk of an escalation that could eventually involve the U.S., which is treaty-bound to defend the Philippines if it is attacked.China has also recently staged war games around
Satellite-based Solution Helps to Prevent Ship Groundings in Coastal Waters
, the Global Satellite Derived Bathymetry (G-SDB) product offers 10-meter detail, making it an excellent resource for spotting coastal shoals in remote regions that do not appear on existing nautical charts. Large contiguous G-SDB products are readily available for critical areas, including the South China Sea, Arabian/Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea, Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean
Australia Conducts First Maintenance of US Nuclear Submarine
Britain and the United States a new class of conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine over the next two decades.The rotations of U.S. nuclear submarines through Australia boosts deterrence in the Indo-Pacific, where China is putting the Philippines under pressure in the disputed waterway of the South China Sea, U.S. lawmaker Michael McCaul said last week.The chair of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, McCaul was speaking during a visit to Sydney.U.S. submarine maintenance in Australia is a step helping to "better deter aggression in the region and uphold the rules-based international
Ocean Power Technologies Inks New Reseller Deals
Marine power, data and service solutions company Ocean Power Technologies announced the signing of four new reseller agreements targeted at supporting global critical services.The agreements include opportunities for partnering with U.S. allied nations in areas like the South China Sea, previously announced efforts in Latin America and the Middle East and serving global commercial markets, OPT said without revealing the names of its new partners."These partnerships provide the amplification for OPT to proactively serve the demand for our autonomous maritime technologies," the company said in
Ukraine's Drone Success Shapes US Pacific 'Hellscape' Strategy
with more conventional high-tech missiles. Last month the U.S. practiced deploying both drones and land-based missiles to the Philippines, where they could significantly influence any Taiwan conflict or further escalation between China and the Philippines over the disputed Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea.'Assault breaker'The phrase "hellscape" was first used by Paparo's predecessor as head of Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral John Aquilino, who told the National Defense Industrial Association conference in Washington last August his forces had been working to integrate unmanned
August 2025
