The U.S. Navy reported Friday that the aircraft carrier ‘USS Nimitz’ and other ships that are part of the Carrier Strike group began operating Thursday in the South China Sea in the face of Beijing’s recent military operations.
«The (carrier) group is conducting maritime strike training, anti-submarine operations, integrated multi-domain training and a joint between surface and air elements, as well as fixed and rotary wing aircraft flight operations,» the Navy specified in a statement.
The Nimitz Carrier Strike has lethal and non-lethal capabilities ranging from «airspace to submarine, across all axes and all domains,» according to the group’s commander, Rear Adm. Christopher Sweeney.
This joint aircraft carrier deployment comes in the context of the reinforcement that the United States has implemented in the region in an attempt to deter China, which carried out military exercises with at least nine warships in the South China Sea together with the Russian Army a few weeks ago.
The United States announced this week that it will deploy a new Marine unit to the Japanese island of Okinawa, in southern Japan, to reinforce security in the face of Beijing’s increasing military activities.
Defense ministers from both countries have previously affirmed the need to optimize the US-Japan Alliance’s force posture to address «growing security challenges in the region,» including the defense of Japan’s southwestern islands.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)