Your "intelligence ships" of the PLA Navy and of Russia trailing the USS Vinson and its USN Carrier Strike Force 1, supposedly on the way to the Korean peninsula when Vinson et al were in fact underway to Australia...
China, Russia send ships after U.S. aircraft carrier
7:23 pm, April 16, 2017
The Yomiuri Shimbun
China and Russia have dispatched intelligence-gathering vessels from their navies to chase the USS Carl Vinson nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, which is heading toward waters near the Korean Peninsula, multiple sources of the Japanese government revealed to The Yomiuri Shimbun.
The aircraft carrier strike group, composed of the Carl Vinson at its core with guided-missile destroyers and other vessels, is understood to be around the East China Sea and heading north toward waters near the Korean Peninsula.
China, Russia send ships after U.S. aircraft carrier - The Japan News
So it could appear the intelligence ships sent out on the chase by PLA Navy and the Russian Navy found themselves alone out there on the vast open ocean as it eventually turned out the Vinson et al were a thousand miles south of 'em. Unless of course anyone might want to dispute Japanese military intelligence reports.
Sounds like Japanese military radars et al picked up some PLAN and also Russian navy ships but not the USN Vinson Carrier Strike Force. Hence the report in the
Yomiuri Shimbun that the Vinson was "understood" to be "around the East China Sea" as it was simultaneously understood to be heading north (but wuz in fact waay down south but nevermind).
Yep, Japanese military intelligence saw some ships but not any USN ships -- certainly not any Vinson ships. So who knows what the Japanese may have thought. For all we know Japanese military intelligence could have wondered if the Vinson force had sailed into a time warp to find itself back near Hawaii on December 6, 1941.
So there are no apparent problems to any of this in respect of MSM reports of PLAN and Russian intelligence ships based on sources in military intelligence. After all, PLAN and the Russian Pacific Fleet had only their own intelligence to go by that the Vinson Group was underway to the Korean peninsula. That and the public announcement of same by U.S. Pacific Command at Pearl Harbor. Either way of course PLAN and the Russian Navy got that all alone feeling out there on the empty high seas.