When You Care Enough to Send the Very Best
USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan conduct drills in the South China Sea just days after Beijing threatened to destroy the strike group, as tensions rise in the hotly contested region
Two US Navy aircraft carriers are operating in the contested South China Sea just two days after Beijing threatened to attack them.
USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan joined together along with their attendant strike groups, carrier-launched F-18 fighters and a B-52 bomber for military exercises.
The US Navy hasn’t operated two carriers together for such shows of force in the region since 2014 when the USS George Washington and USS Carl Vinson sailed there side by side.
This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
Two US aircraft carriers sail in South China Sea as tensions mount
For the first time in several years, the United States has deployed two aircraft carriers in the South China Sea, the U.S. Navy said Monday, right after China flexed its own naval muscle with a military exercise in the disputed Paracel Islands.
The military maneuvers point to rising tensions in the region, as the U.S. pushes back against an increasingly assertive China that has been ratcheting up pressure on other claimant nations. A U.S. analyst warned that with the current pattern activity, there was a danger of escalation.
“This is heightened because both the United States and China as well as most other claimants tend to assess the escalation potential to be quite low — hence the very real possibility of provocative behavior by one or more states triggering an unintended escalatory spiral,” said Andrew Scobell, a senior political scientist for the U.S.-based RAND Corporation and a professor at Marine Corps University.
The American deployment of the aircraft carriers USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan, and their accompanying strike groups, began with drills in the Philippine Sea on June 28. The ships then moved west into the South China Sea on July 4, America’s Independence Day.
A show of force in response to this, perhaps:
FBI: China attacking US in massive campaign including cyber, propaganda, economic espionage and more
American Military News
Read the entire article here: American Military News
Chicoms can stick it.
“We begin bombing in five minutes.” ~ Ronald Reagan
One word Ben…are you listening? Yes sir..I’m listening…
“AEGIS”
From the article “China attacking…using any means…including corrupt insiders.”
In addition to the carrier group, maybe we should be doing the same.
“…Beijing threatened to attack them.” What was it one of our more deplorable d’weeds said about one of the guvenators the other day? “I wish a mfer would?”
Does China have enough old tires to keep her carrier fueled up for a long sea deployment?
https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2020/07/06/former-airman-pleads-guilty-in-scheme-to-offer-information-to-russia/
why should they be any different?
Come on down, Xi. Got something we want to show you.
“I’m your Huckleberry.”
If our aircraft carriers are the “paper tigers” the Shovelheads claim they are, then why did they not make good on their threats?
Things that make you go, “Hmmmmm…..”
A show of force is often the best deterrent. So be it now.
They can’t even handle Indian Troops armed with sticks and rocks
It would be interesting to know what’s really being thought by the captains and senior officers as to the effectiveness of the carrier task group defenses against China’s current weaponry.
I got to tag along with the skipper to an exercise debrief when I was a junior officer, member of a squadron deployed on one of the carriers of a similar exercise. We were in the Med going against simulated Soviets. The umpires had done their analysis and the staff weenie was talking about how well the task group had done. This was pre-Aegis, in 1978 best I recall.
A senior captain of one of the DDG’s came unglued. Something like 40% of the ships were either sunk or combat incapable, one of the carriers was non-functional and the other heavily damaged. And the staff called it a “success” because the Russians didn’t sink every ship before the exercise ended. (All wars have a time limit, right, like football?) This captain let them have it with all guns and a lot of heads were nodding in agreement.
So, what happens today? The Chi-coms have some long range missiles, they have to be reading up on the old Soviet tactics of swarming the fleet with ASMs. What do the guys on the pointy end of the spear think?
Good points all. It IS concerning. But, it is also true that through this sort of exercise that the juniors learn to become seniors. Finding the balance between legitimate training and foolhardiness can be very tricky. (I was never fond of practicing bleeding, for instance.)
The rise of China mirrors that of Nazi Germany in the 30s
My guess is if there puppet gets elected in November
We’ll go back to looking the other way again
Lars says that Red Chinese antiship supermissiles have been “proven accurate and reliable.” I’m still waiting to hear which conflict it was in which that was proven. You would think a naval engagement where a major surface combatant is sunk by a bigass Chinese missile would be a newsworthy event. Apparently Lars was the only witness to this incident(s), and we should all just take his word for it.
As for me, I don’t think the carriers and their escorts have too much to worry about. Red China has already lost a shit-ton of face over the Chinese Bat Flu. Getting their ass handed to them by the US Navy in waters much, much closer to China than America won’t improve that situation for them.
One of the biggest mistakes of the 1930s was buying the bluffs of the Third Reich. Prior to 1939, they were highly vulnerable.
That’s a good start.
Now, have multinational naval exercises every six months in the SCS…just forget to invite the Chinese.
“USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan joined together along with their attendant strike groups, carrier-launched F-18 fighters and a B-52 bomber for military exercises.”
They launched a BUFF off of a carrier?
I bet that was a hell of a show.
Newspeople are ignorant today.