WASHINGTON – The US deployed three aircraft carrier strike groups, or overone quarter of its active duty carrier fleet, to the Pacific last week amidescalating tensions with Beijing over Taiwan, Hong Kong, coronavirus andChina’s entrenchment in the South China Sea.
The USS Roosevelt and USS Nimitz’ led carrier strike groups began jointflight operation drills in the Philippine Sea on Sunday, with the Navyreporting that the exercises are aimed at “demonstrating the United States’unique capability to operate multiple carrier strike groups in closeproximity.”
“This is a great opportunity for us to train together in a complexscenario,” Rear Adm. Dough Verissimo, commander of the Roosevelt-led strikegroup was quoted as saying. “By working together in this environment, we’reimproving our tactical skills and readiness in the face of an increasinglypressurized region and COVID-19.”
In addition to the aerial drills, the strike groups are expected topractice air defence, surveillance, replenishment at sea, long-rangeoffensive strikes, and coordinated naval maneuvers.
Rear Adm. James Kirk, commander of the Nimitz’ led strike group, said thejoint operations “demonstrate the resilience and readiness of our navalforce and are a powerful message of our commitment to regional security andstability as we protect the critically important rights, freedoms andlawful uses of the sea for the benefit of all nations.”
The Roosevelt and the Nimitz and their support ships joined the USS RonaldReagan strike group operating off Japan for a Pacific deployment last week,with the heavily armed naval groups deployed to send a message to Chinaabout the US’s continued ‘leadership’ in the region.
Verissimo called the joint deployment “a great opportunity for us to trainon how we would operate multiple carrier strike groups in a contestedenvironment.”
“US aircraft carriers possess flexibility, endurance, firepower,maneuverability and capability unmatched in the history of warfare,” headded.
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In addition to carriers and their air wings, the drills involve eight otherwarships, including guided missile cruisers and guided missile destroyers.
Last week, China warned that it would deploy “countermeasures” to the UScarrier deployment, with the Global Times newspaper pointing to thePeople’s Liberation Army’s possession of several classes of‘carrier-killing’ weapons including the DF-21D and DF-26 anti-shipballistic missiles. If deployed along China’s coast, the DF-26 is capableof reaching as far as Guam. Both missiles fly toward their targets atextremely high speeds, making them very difficult to intercept, even by UScarrier strike groups’ extensive, multilayered air defence systems.
The simultaneous deployment of three carriers to the Pacific is the firstshow of force of its kind in nearly three years, and comes amid anotherescalation of US-China tensions earlier this month after Taiwan’s defenceministry allowed a US Navy C-40A Clipper cargo aircraft to fly the span ofthe island on its way from Okinawa to Thailand. China, which classifiedTaiwan as its rightful territory, called the incident “provocative.”
The incident was just the latest amid a long line of grievances betweenWashington and Beijing including the origins of the coronavirus, a tradedispute worth hundreds of billions of dollars, technological competition,arms control issues, Hong Kong protests, the South China Sea dispute, andmore.
On Thursday, President Trump reiterated that the US maintains “a policyoption” under which Washington could completely break off ties with Beijingafter being challenged on the issue by US trade negotiator RobertLighthizer, who told Congress Wednesday that a “decoupling” of the twoeconomic powers would be impossible. – Sputnik
