Liaoning ship exercises in the East China Sea in April 2018
The Chinese Communist aircraft carrier Liaoning and five frigates have passed through a key waterway near Japan and headed for the Pacific Ocean, the Joint Staff of Japan’s Defense Ministry said Sunday (April 4). The move by the Chinese warships comes as the U.S. Navy strengthens cooperation with its “quadrilateral” partners Japan, India and Australia in the Indo-Pacific region.
The Nikkei Asian Review reported that the Joint Staff said the carrier battle group was spotted around 8 a.m. Saturday about 470 kilometers southwest of the Men and Women Islands in Japan’s Nagasaki Prefecture. The carrier battle group then passed through the Miyako Strait, a 250-kilometer-wide waterway between Okinawa Island and Miyako Island.
This is the first time the Liaoning ships have passed through this waterway since April 2020, and comes just days after the U.S. and Australian navies conducted joint exercises in the eastern Pacific.
Liaoning battle group passes through waters off Japan under Japanese surveillance
Among the six Chinese naval vessels, besides the Liaoning, the other five are the Type 055 destroyer Nanchang, Type 052D destroyers Chengdu and Taiyuan, Type 054A frigate Huanggang and Type 901 integrated supply ship Hulunhu.
Among them, the Nanchang is the largest Renhai class destroyer of the Chinese navy, which sailed for a week in the sea near Japan in March.
The Joint Staff said the Japanese side deployed the JS Suzutsuki, an Akizuki-class destroyer of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, as well as P-1 and P3C anti-submarine patrol aircraft to gather information and monitor the movements of the Chinese Communist Party ships.
Photos provided by the Joint Staff show the Liaoning carrying a helicopter, suspected to be a J-15 fighter jet.
The Joint Staff added that a Chinese Communist transport plane, the Y-9, flew over the Miyako Strait on Sunday, and Japan sent a jet fighter into the air in response.
Japan’s Defense Ministry’s Unification Bureau of Internal Affairs and Communications also released information that a Chinese Communist Party transport-9 patrol plane flew over the waters of the East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean on the same day, and issued a flight path schematic. Japan’s Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) urgently dispatched fighter jets in response.
Japan’s Defense Ministry has concluded that the six Chinese ships are part of Beijing’s intensified maritime operations in the East China Sea, and Japan is stepping up its monitoring of the six ships’ movements.
The Liaoning was commissioned in 2012 and sailed in the Pacific Ocean for the first time in 2016.
U.S., India Hold Military Exercises in East Indian Ocean Region
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s recent visit to India was followed by a joint multi-domain combat exercise between the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Battle Group and the Indian Navy and Air Force in the Indian Ocean from March 28-29.
The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, the guided missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill and the destroyer USS Russell joined the Indian frigate USS Shivalik and aircraft from IAF Squadron 222, known as “Tiger Sharks.
In an official statement, the Indian Navy said that in order to integrate the Indian Shivalik-class frigate (INS Shivalik) with the U.S. Seahawk helicopters during the Malabar 2020 exercise The Indian anti-submarine aircraft P-8I participated in a joint exercise with the USS Roosevelt carrier strike group in the eastern Indian Ocean.
“In the first enhanced joint exercise, IAF fighter jets were also involved in the exercise, which gave the IAF the opportunity to conduct air interdiction and air defense exercises with the U.S. Navy off the Indian coast.” The statement added.
U.S. Indo-Pacific Command has emphasized strengthening joint multi-domain operations, including convergence capabilities on land, sea, air, space and cyberspace, and has included the Indian Air Force in the exercise to advance this directive.
U.S. Navy Exercises with Japanese and Australian Navies
The USS Blue Ridge, the flagship of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, conducted a joint exercise with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Kongo-class Aegis destroyer JS Kongo in the East China Sea to test the two nations’ maritime cooperation skills and communications capabilities, a U.S. Pacific Fleet news release said March 30.
The U.S. Pacific Fleet said the exercise, which included ship formation navigation, communications and maritime maneuvers, was designed to enhance and improve cooperation and interoperability between the two sides. Unique to this exercise was the participation of shipboard aircraft from the USS Blue Ridge, which flew helicopters in concert with the ship’s formation and landed on the Japanese destroyer USS Kongo during the exercise.
The exercise was immediately followed by a two-day joint exercise between the U.S. and Australian navies.
Last Wednesday and Thursday, the USS John Finn, a guided-missile destroyer, and HMAS Sydney, an Australian Hobart-class air combat destroyer, participated in a collective navigation exercise off the coast of Southern California to improve interoperability.
Recent Comments