U.S. media reported that the British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth has left Singapore, ending a nearly three-month deployment to the western Pacific, and another British Type 45 destroyer has arrived in the region. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy’s newly developed 90,000-ton giant ship recently arrived in Japan. In this regard, military experts pointed out that the U.S. and Britain have further formed an island chain layout and strengthened forward deployment.
The U.S. Defense News reported Tuesday (12) that the Royal Navy’s HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier left Singapore the same day, ending a nearly three-month deployment in the Western Pacific.
The report noted that just the day before, the 65,000-ton British naval carrier arrived in Singapore after conducting joint exercises with the Singaporean military, including the deployment of F-35B fighter jets to train with the Singaporean Air Force’s F-16s. The British carrier carries 18 F-35B fighter jets, eight of which are from the British Air Force and the rest from the U.S. Marine Corps.
According to reports, the British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth went to sea in May this year and formed a multinational task force called Carrier Strike Group-21 with other escort ships. The carrier group includes the Royal Navy frigate HMS Richmond, frigate HMS Kent, destroyer HMS Defender, and supply ship HMS Fort Victoria. The U.S. Navy’s USS Sullivan destroyer of the U.S. Navy and the frigate HMS Everson of the Dutch Navy.
The British carrier group arrived in the western Pacific in late July and conducted joint exercises with naval forces in the region, as well as a large-scale exercise with the navies of six countries in the southeastern waters of Okinawa, Japan. Speaking to the media in Singapore, the commander of the carrier group, Steve Moorhouse, said the deployment of the British carrier “signals the importance of the region”.
The report stressed that Britain will continue to deploy naval forces in the region after the carrier group leaves the Western Pacific, with another Royal Navy Type 45 destroyer, HMS Diamond, already in the region to join Australian, Malaysian, New Zealand and Singaporean forces in the “Bersama Gold” exercise. Bersama Gold” (Bersama Gold) exercise. Two other Royal Navy ships, the River-class offshore patrol ships HMS Tamar and HMS Spey, will cross the Panama Canal and head to the Indo-Pacific region, stopping at The U.S. Navy’s ships, the River-class offshore patrol ships Tamar and Spee, will travel through the Panama Canal to the Indo-Pacific region, docking at St. Regis.
The USS Miguel Keith, a U.S. Navy expeditionary mobile base ship, arrived at the Sasebo base in western Japan on the evening of the 8th local time, according to the U.S. media Stars and Stripes on the 12th. Previously, the ship had a brief stay in the waters near Okinawa.
“The Miguel Keith departed Hawaii for the Western Pacific on September 20, the U.S. Army confirmed in an official statement, the first time the ship has been deployed to the Seventh Fleet area since its commissioning in May this year.
Expeditionary mobile base ships, as the name implies, are sea bases that can be moved to partially replace the role of shore bases and ports. Since the end of the Cold War, the number of overseas bases has been drastically reduced, and the Expeditionary Mobile Base Ship has become a new type of support ship for the U.S. Navy.
“The USS Miguel Keith is 239.3 meters long, 50 meters wide and has a full load displacement of 90,000 tons, second only to the U.S. military’s nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, and is currently the world’s largest conventionally powered ship in terms of tonnage. As a support ship, the expeditionary mobile base ship can be mobile and flexible to support a variety of combat missions, including anti-mine, sea rescue and other special operations.
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