China’s spy ship Yuan Wang 5 back in Indian Ocean amid speculation over India’s missile test next week

New Delhi: China’s spy ship Yuan Wang 5 has returned to the maritime neighbourhood of India, three years after it had docked at Hambantota Port of Sri Lanka.

New Delhi is closely monitoring the movement of the Yuan Wang 5, as the state-of-the-art satellite and missile tracking vessel of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy has returned to the Indian Ocean region amid speculation that India may test a hypersonic long-range anti-ship missile over the Bay of Bengal between September 24 and 25.

The Yuan Wang 5 was last reported to be near Indonesia around September 18.

New Delhi has issued a NOTAM restricting the airspace over the Bay of Bengal between September 24 and 25. This fuelled speculation about an impending missile test by India.

The movement of the Chinese PLA Navy’s ship in the Indian Ocean region around the same time triggered concerns in New Delhi because its dual-use tracking capabilities could also be used for snooping, sources told DH.

The Yuan Wang 5 has multiple high-accuracy, long-range, amplitude-comparison monopulse radar systems, which are capable of manual or automatic acquisition and tracking objects that are either in flight or in orbit. It has a crew of over 400 personnel. The ship is among the ones used by the Strategic Support Force of the Chinese PLA Navy to track satellites and intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The spy ship had more than 80 tasks ever since entering service in September 2007, including tracking China’s crewed spacecraft Shenzhou, Chang'e Lunar Exploration Missions and the BeiDou satellites. It had gone through a technical upgrade in 2022 to improve the navigation power, safety performance, reliability and operability of its “specialised equipment”.

The Yuan Wang 5 had in August 2022 arrived at the Hambantota Port, which Sri Lanka had leased out to a state-owned company of China in 2016.

Colombo had granted the ship permission to dock for about a week, although India had conveyed its security concerns to Sri Lanka.