The USS Ronald and USS Nimitz carrier strike groups, made up of more than 12,000 US servicemen between the two carriers and their cruise ship escorts and destroyers, were operating in the South China Sea beginning Friday, the Pacific Fleet of USA In a statement.
The two carriers, with more than 120 aircraft deployed between them, were conducting tactical air defense drills “to maintain readiness and competition in the war,” the statement said.
“The attack force of two carriers trains the highest levels of preparedness to ensure responsiveness to any contingency through power projection,” he said.
The presence of Nimitz and Reagan in the South China Sea earlier this month marked the first time that two U.S. aircraft carriers have operated together there since 2014 and only the second time since 2001.
That exercise began on July 4 and Lieutenant Commander of the Navy. Sean Brophy aboard the Reagan said July 8 that “each strike group continues its respective operational tasks.”
The photos posted on the US Navy website posted the Reagan strike group in the Indian Ocean from July 10 to 14.
China protests activities of the U.S. Navy
China, which claims almost the entire 1.3 million-square-mile South China Sea as its sovereign territory, reacted severely to the presence of carriers in the region in early July.
“The United States’ action is intended to open a gap between countries, promote the militarization of the South China Sea and undermine peace and stability in the South China Sea,” said the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of China, Zhao Lijian.
Since then, tensions have escalated, and Washington this week called most of China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea illegal.
The Chinese embassy in Washington called those allegations “completely unjustified.”
The United States “distorts the facts and international law … exaggerates the situation in the region and tries to sow discord between China and other coastal countries,” the embassy said in a statement.
A day after Pompeo’s announcement, a US guided missile destroyer sailed near the Chinese-claimed Spratly Islands, also known as the Nansha Islands in China. The measure was described as a “freedom of navigation” operation, part of the commitment of the United States Navy to affirm “the rights, freedoms and legal uses of the sea recognized in international law by challenging restrictions on innocent passage”, Cmdr. Reann Mommsen, a spokesman for the 7th Navy fleet, told CNN in a statement.
“Illegal and radical maritime claims in the South China Sea pose a serious threat to the freedom of the seas, including freedoms of navigation and overflight, free trade and unimpeded trade, and freedom of economic opportunity for littoral nations of the South China Sea, “Mommsen said.
The Navy used similar language when the two carriers united again in the South China Sea on Friday.
“Nimitz and Reagan Carrier Strike Groups are operating in the South China Sea, where permitted by international law, to reinforce our commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific, a rules-based international order, and to our allies and partners. in the region”. Rear Admiral Jim Kirk, commander of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, said in a statement.
The latest deployment was not in reaction to any of last week’s policies, the Navy statement said.
“The presence of two carriers in the South China Sea does not respond to any specific global or political event, but is part of a regular integration to exercise and develop tactical interoperability. For more than 75 years, the US Navy The US has operated multiple carrier strike force operations in the region, “the statement said.
However, China is likely to see things differently.
The exercises earlier this month raised a veiled threat to US forces in the state-sponsored Global Times, which called US carriers “nothing more than paper tigers at the gates of China” and said that Beijing has more than Enough firepower to defend their positions in the South China Sea.
“The South China Sea is completely within the reach of the People’s Liberation Army (EPL), and any US carrier movements in the region are closely watched and led by the EPL, which has a wide range of Carrier weapons such as DF-21D and DF-26, both considered ‘carrier killer’ missiles, “the Global Times report said.
But Kirk said interactions between US carrier strike groups and the Chinese navy were routine.
He said that Chinese warships supervised the United States exercises, but the operations were professional and safe.
“We certainly saw the EPL Navy and they saw us,” said Kirk.
CNN’s Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.
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