The U.S. Navy started reviving a spy program last year that was designed to counter submarine threats.
According to people with direct knowledge of the plans, it’s worth billions of dollars, sits on an island just 50 miles north of Seattle, and has the biggest monitoring range of any similar program since the end of the Cold War.
In recent years, the Chinese military has been aggressive in trying to intimidate Taiwan. Beijing claims the island as its own and has not ruled out the use of force to take control of it.
Taiwan sits on the first island chain blocking China from accessing deep waters off its coast. Those waters would prove essential if Beijing wanted to launch and conceal armed submarines and attack the U.S..