Does China Have a Secret Spy Fleet? 

I'm a former US Navy Operations Specialists. We were pulling into Chile for there naval birthday and parade celebration there was a Chinese Hospital ship already in port for the parade, looking through our Ship Optical system (a high powered camera) we could help notice the vast amount of antennas on top of the ship....

Shocked that the Glomar Explorer wasn't brought up. I mean, building a scientific research vessel with the sole purpose of recovering a Soviet nuclear submarine kinda meets the criteria.

I love the idea of any nation having a government-funded (even partially) vessel with cutting edge sensor equipment and not using it, to whatever extent, to gather intelligence. If the Royal Navy was secretly arming merchant ships 109 years ago, it would be very odd if they, along with everyone else, weren't doing vaguely similar things now, but 109 years more advanced.

The line between civilian scientific and military 'oceanography' is gray and fuzzy! Considering China has an integrated civilian/military infrastructure, I'd be surprised if they didn't. So yes, they have one. And so do many other nations.

Yes on the Independence and the Kitty Hawk I have personally seen the China spy fleet and the Russian spy fleet ships. Using yachts is a low cost instead of military craft.

Completely ignorant conjecture on my part but here's my theory: trip north provides framing and plausible deniability, and when they were closest to Taiwan, they were picking up their surveillance drones

Without actually watching the video.... the answer is YES. But it's nothing new or unique. 10 year US Navy Veteran.

I...kind of presumed they had one already. I figured most major nations would. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Even their merchant marine fleet carries out clandestine operations in coordination with the “coast guard”.

The UK's David Attenborough so called "research vessel" is also one of these. I live not far from Cammel Lairds, the shipyard in which it was built along side Type 45 and frigate refurbishments. Large, black wrapped equipment was craned on to the ship many times under military armed guard.

The resolution of said ruckus. I love it 😂😂

This feels like a Warographics video

Shouldn't this be on Into the Shadows? 😏 An odd Megaprojects. No matter, im going to enjoy this regardless.

Can't the ship do both things. It reminds me of when the US Navy funded a search for the Titanic so they could find a Russian submarine that had sunk.

1:05 - Chapter 1 - The zhuahai cloud 11:00 - Chapter 2 - Those in glass house

As usual, superb writing and execution.

Now if warographics could get back to this style of reporting that would be great. No very obvious bias and straight facts exactly why I love the Whistlerverse and its content. Oh and Simon or writers y’all can happily use Whistlerverse if you think it’s good.

These ships look quite innocent in comparison to the chinese paramilitary shipping fleet.

its for monarch kaiju research

Let's be honest here, if they don't have a secret spy fleet then someone isn't doing their job...

I always thought that their fishing fleets are spy ships

That they didn't have spy ships, that would be news.

Noah was just doing oceanagraphic research. It was only by chance that he had all of his pets aboard.

could you do a vid on chernobly? i realy would like to see another nuclear power plant vid

Why is this on MegaProjects and not Warographics or Into the Shadows?

Hello Simon, you make RU-vid worth switching on the TV keep it up mate from a fellow Brit Everything you do is so informative I love the mega projects😊😊😊😊

Glad i watched this before it gets taken down.

Quite an exciting video on something not really talked about in history books.

I think the idea of a spy ship goes back a bit further than what's mentioned in the vid. probably by thousand of years.

One of the captured USS Pueblo sailors spoke at my high school graduation.

Well...DUH!! We are not all simpletons.

How is this news day? It's a normal Tuesday!

Refering to the entire Pacific theater of WWII as a "little ruckus starting in Hawaii"... absolutely gold

Nice analysis. Your writer should've been a navy intelligence analyst.

A bulbous bow doesn’t necessarily indicate anything, it’s a fuel saving measure to even out the water line that runs along the hull as the ship makes way through the water.

The one thing I can say for certain about her is, she is one beautiful ship!!

Good one fact boy

This story is like when another Civ (in civ 6) sends a scout to your territory, then they stick around a little too long. So you send a singer over and the scout runs off. Was it a scouting run, or are the assessing the defenses if they were to attack?

can you make a video about the F-20 tigershark

shouldnt even be a question at this point.

During the Cold War, the Soviets were blatant with respects to their fishing trawlers. I saw one on the back side of Maui during a landscape photo trip. It was a rust bucket that was painted red. On the top was a really big white dome, which looked like the upper two-thirds of an incandescent light bulb. The edge of the roof was covered with antennas. The local TV stations also got wind of the vessel and sent aerial crews to tape footage for the evening news. This occurred at the same time one of our (US) submarines sailed between Lanai and Maui on the surface, which p**sed off quite a few locals.

Here's a challenge. Watch the show Deadliest Catch. Pay attention to the boats in the distance. If you see one with more than 5 antennas, that's a spy ship (either Chinese or Russian).

Secret😂😂😂😂

I don’t really have an issue with it. I’d be surprised if they didn’t

This episode of Megaprojects is brought to you by the word 'Allegedly'.

Why is this a surprise? Every great power and Evan some lasser powers have spy ships? Par for the course.

"If it quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck"

Thats kind of a dumb question. Every nuclear armed nation has at least one ship that's a spy ship rather they announce it or not. Let's not forget. In late 2023 and early 2024, an Iranian ship that was in the red Sea was always nearby when the Houthis launched missiles and drones at ships. The U.S. accused it of being an Iranian spy ship. Where it went, so did the drones and missiles go. The U.S launched a cyber attack on it and the attacks died down a bit shortly after.

I just always assume that every Chinese vessel is a military ship. Including the hundreds of Cosco owned ships docked at American and European ports on a daily basis. Thousands of shipping containers, if only a handful held nukes the world would collapse.😢😢

Gotta love the fact that China’s spy fleet is so pitiful that Megaprojects has a video just calling out their ships

well... Simon, why don't you do one about the Japanese "Antarctic scientific research" vessel? Or is that too controversial?

The Peanut Farmer is putting in work.

The phrase "US condoned Chinese research" does make one wonder. More importantly. The subject ship does look a lot like Stingray. If Gerry Anderson or his decendants are taking note. There may be some copyright infringement! Lol. Great video as usual.

Yeah, you lost me at harrier. I still call em jump jets, btw what is faster 2wd or 4wd?

I need an autograph Simon

To answer the primary question…most likely. It’s probably there, probably wider spread, and probably simpler than you think.

But Simon... China and Russia have the opinion that all assets in the nation are state assets. And will use them to an extent that would even make the Stasi envious! But they are also very clever at hiding it behind the veil of plausible explanations of civilian use. After all, a private yacht can go anywhere. and they just happen to have their military grade survey equipment running at all times......

100% yes

I'm pretty sure the US, Russia, France, the UK etc all do too.

of course it's a spy ship even a fart over there has a military connection!!!

Anyone catch the dolphin breaching in the old WWII film at 13:23?

All hail our robotic underlords. No really, hail them, or they'll surface at night and shoot your super yacht

Honestly, this is pretty plausible. Most of Chinese manufacturing has civilian and military purpose dual purpose, if you could say.

Does a Bear sh*t n the woods?

Let me guess, you didn't know that Bob Ballard's search for Titanic was a cover story for a classified US Navy operation to find sunked US submarines.

Well, they’d be pretty silly not to have a spy fleet. As a US military veteran, I’m absolutely sure we have them, not because I’m privy to any insider information but because I know how valuable they’d be. It would be irresponsible of our government not to have such vessels. Similarly, I have to conclude that Chinese leaders made the same decision in the support of their national interests.

Kinda like their water powered missiles and rockets.

civilian spy fleet eh? what i'm hearing is we should be bringing back privateers.

Hear me out here, what if these ships are doing actual marine research. Because they all appear to be returning to submarine bases I think that they are mapping the sea floor so they can provide accurate maps for the submarine fleets. That's not saying they're not pulling double duties and doing a bit of spying on the side.

The answer is no because saying yes would be a paradox

Both the US and the Soviets had totaly not military spy fleets during the cold war

Watch this from 10.07 So what if it is???

It’s like Beau of the fifth says. “ Foreign Policy is an international poker game where everyone is cheating“

When quoting a source with "From the horses mouth at 2:00 please play or link the source video for us to independently translate, I don't speak mandarin but I'm sure many commenters do and I also have access to people who do and can verify that info to add legitimacy to your claims. it would ease my mind if you could confidently supply your claims easily without having to spend an evening verifying your essay independently

There was a satellite that Was like that. It had military use, so it could destroy other satellites.

No reason there couldn't be a "black box" of electronics installed someplace behind a few bulkheads that was attached to every antenna and piece of equipment capable of detecting RF energy which collected every bit of spectrum that could be detected. It could then compile everything and burst it out via some kind of satellite communications system. If it was geo fenced to only do this when far(ish) out to sea, it could easily do this and remain undetected. I'd be surprised if every ship constructed in china didn't have something like this built in, with the owners/operators (potentially) completely unaware. If the systems were low power enough and redundant enough then a solid state system could very well operate uninterrupted for years with no need for maintenance.

Of course the Chinese have secret spy ships. All the super powers do.

this isnt really anything new.. militaries around the world ALWAYS get first pick of technologies developed on their soil.. the USA has plenty of ships built for civilian purposes that were also used for military missions.. some were adapted and refitted back later while others were never needed to be changed..

Yes, it's already well known to us in ASEAN. I just wish the American public did.

OK Let's say it is a spy fleet. What is wrong with that?

I remember when the ‘Russian trawler following US battle groups around was a cliche.

Simon says he won't continue to speculate on what is or is not a US spy ship on account of he doesn't want to jeopardize his CIA funding from Mockingbird

What kind of spy fleet would you expect it to have?

🇺🇸

With every move he makes another chance he takes Odds are he won't live to see tomorrow Secret agent man Secret agent man They've given you a number, and taken away your name

The only reason for them to go around the other side of Taiwan, other than spying, would be smuggling.

Stole everything like thieves!

A nice looking ship, whatever its real purpose.

Pretty sure this is a Bond Movie plot

Doesnt america have Therese chips also?

The answer has to be no because after this video even if it did exist it wouldn't be secret.

Your mic picking up the sharp breaths in was wayyyy too distracting

tofu dreg secret spy fleet? good luck wit dat

Does America, Britain, France, India..... everyone (that can afford one).. dah....doh... Homer Simpson day in the navy.

Yeah, can't blame the PRC for conducting activities in international areas. What I do blame the CCP for is claiming "Taiwan" belongs to them.

the chinese, a geat bunch of lads 😊

Secret spy ships aka 'Q-ships'

Well, it wouldn't be a secret if everyone knows about it. Right?

sorry Simon, but read the headline already knew the answer. of course, it F'in does. have seen many fleets of Chinese "fishing fleets" lately? 2+2 anyone?

I'm confused... Is it a video about China's "megaproject" or an illustration of China's "whataboutism"?