Continuing its Pacific fleet show of force aimed at China, the US Navy this week is conducting its first dual aircraft carrier operational drills since 2018. After a months-long hiatus due to COVID-19, the US now has three carrier strike groups patrolling the Pacific.
China used the absence of US carriers in the region (other than the USS America amphibious assault ship with F-35 jets) to increase its menacing naval presence (RELATED: Major U.S. Naval Presence in Pacific Ruined China Narrative of Crippled U.S. Fleet).
China is also deploying its two new medium aircraft carriers in the South China Sea and around Taiwan and Japan (RELATED: China Quickly Launching New Amphibious Assault Aircraft Carriers).
Taiwan News has reported that China is planning to deploy its two new aircraft carriers – the Liaoning, China’s first aircraft carrier, and the Shandong, its latest – in waters near Taiwan in August as part of “war games to rehearse for a future assault on the Taiwan-controlled Dongsha Islands.”
Other sources note, however, that it is “unclear whether the two Chinese carriers will train together.”
According to a US Navy statement reported by Stars and Stripes, the USS Roosevelt and USS Nimitz strike groups plan to practice “air defense drills, sea surveillance, replenishments at sea, defense air combat training, long-range strikes, coordinated maneuvers and other exercises.” Unlike the Chinese People Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), and its limited new carriers, the US Navy has a long history of operating multiple super carrier strike groups as a combined force in the Pacific.
SEE ALSO: Three Aircraft Carriers Strike Groups Now in Pacific
Dual-carrier operations act as “a powerful message of our commitment to regional security and stability as we protect the critically important rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea for the benefit of all nations,” Nimitz Strike Group commander Rear Adm. James Kirk said in the statement.
Nevertheless, as noted by Stars and Stripes, these operations are relatively infrequent. This week’s drills mark “only the sixth time since 2001 that two carriers have operated together in the Western Pacific.” Dual-carrier operations generally occur when West Coast strike groups deployed to the Western Pacific can join strike groups coming from Japan, so the timing of these drills is important.
If China does deploy its two carriers together later this summer, this would be “more symbolic than substantive,” says Paul Buchanan, an American security analyst based in New Zealand, noting that Beijing doesn’t have a lot of experience in carrier operations.
“They are posturing quite heavily,” he said, adding that such an exercise would hone the crews’ operational experience. Still, the PLAN drills are a direct challenge to U.S. supremacy in the South China Sea, Buchanan added. “The U.S. moves its carriers through there at will but now it has a serious contender to the throne,” he said.
The joint US carrier drills are clearly a signal to both China and US allies that the US remains fully capable and committed to its powerful naval presence in the Pacific. It is also a clear message that despite the PLAN’s pretensions with its new limited capability, medium carriers – for now – only the US can operate multiple super carrier strike groups in coordinated fashion.
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All Americans should not buy anything made in China. We have been putting money in the coffers of a hostile nation and it’s time to stop that and make the Chicoms suffer and cut back their aggression.
Exactly, I’ve already started looking at the labels of where stuff is made. Forget China and their crap. I’ve pay a little more for made in the U.S.A., or Taiwan of Cambodia or even Viet Nam (Nam vet).
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Discussed with this nonsensical post.
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The products they make are cheap and full of toxic materials.
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Defund Communist China by demanding all U.S. company’s to come home and restart our industrial base. It will take a few years to wean the people off of the toxic Chinese products, but the out come can and will be American Jobs and a much stronger economy.
THERE ARE MANY COMPANIES THAT HAVE PRODUCTS BEING MADE IN CHINA. FIRST THESE CEO’S SAY THEY ARE LOOKING OUT FOR THEIR STOCK HOLDERS INTEREST. MORE OVER THESE CEO’S ARE GETTING SOME SERIOUS BONUSES FOR THEMSELVES, LIKE 10-20 MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR, WHILE THEY COULD PUT THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS BACK TO WORK MAKING OUR OWN PRODUCTS INSTEAD OF RELYING ON A COMMUNIST COUNTRY LIKE CHINA TO MAKE WHAT WE NEED. THEY HAVE HORDED PPE AND THREATENED NOT TO SUPPLY US WITH INGREDIENTS FOR OUR MEDICINES. IF WE GET INTO A WAR WITH CHINA DOES ANYONE THINK THEY WILL EXPORT WHAT WE NEED TO SURVIVE, I SAY CUT ALL TIES IN TRADING WITH CHINA AS THERE ARE MANY OTHER COUNTRIES WE COULD DEAL WITH.
This is good stuff, we need to keep “everyone” on their toes and “up to speed” on the can of whoop-ass the US can unleash if needed. I especially liked the name of the commander: Nimitz Strike Group commander Rear Adm. James Kirk! Love it!
They need to get our medicines that are made there out of that evil country….It is time to stop this business with China once and for all. and shame on American companies for still doing business with them after all of this collusion with the Liberals to terrorize people and try to remove Trump from office one way or another.
I make the assumption that any product made in China that has a circuit board sends data to China.
Time to get a few more carriers and nuke subs off the drawing board and into production. Force is the only thing that China truly understands. It’s a historical precept with them. China believes in strength, and has been ruled with a heavy hand for most of its 3000 year history. It appreciates only those who are stronger, and only as long as they maintain that strength.