Posted on 12/12/2019 7:47:43 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The US Air Force's frequent activities over the South China Sea might not attract the same attention as the US Navy's, but they still played an important role in negotiations with China, according to American air force officers.
Gen. Charles Brown, commander of US Pacific Air Forces, said US warplanes — including bombers, U-2 reconnaissance aircraft and RQ-4 Global Hawk drones — regularly conducted "freedom of navigation" operations over the disputed waters despite China's deployment of air defence facilities on artificial islands and reefs in the area.
"We've been flying in and around the South China Sea for really about the past 15 years, and I would probably tell you we've done some as recently as this week," Brown said in Hawaii on Friday after the 2019 Pacific Air Chiefs Symposium.
Brown said the aircraft were deployed alongside the US Navy's P-3/P-8 anti-submarine planes, and while the flyovers did not get as much media coverage as naval operations, the response from China was just as strong.
"We do hear about it because we do get calls from the PRC," he said, referring to the People's Republic of China.
The South China Sea is home to some of the world's busiest trade routes and is claimed by a number of countries in the region, including China, which has built military outposts with airfields, naval harbours on its artificial islands, and deployed air defence radars and missiles there.
In recent years, the US Navy has mounted regular patrols near those outposts to challenge what the United States calls China's "excessive claims."
While the White House has labelled China a "strategic rival" and the two countries are at odds on a range of fronts from trade to technology,
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Let’s hope it’s not our Charlie Brown against China’s Lucy.
I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near one of those Chinese vessels. They might have an accident like the submarine that vaporized itself in mid November. https://www.forbes.com/sites/hisutton/2019/10/16/chinese-nuclear-submarine-involved-in-incident-in-south-china-sea/#1900bb3291b7
That thing started as a fire and ended in a 20 kiloton underwater explosion that vaporized the boat and crew.
The story at the link mentions no fire or explosion.
What ‘thing’ were you referring to?
I read at least 15 or 20 articles from various sources. Just google chinese submarine explosion and there will be a hundred articles. The Forbes article was just convenient. Even the Russians monitored to disaster. The sub had a crew of 72.
Just skip the usual conspiracy theory sites, there’s lots from legitimate sources.
And of course, non from the left stream media.
The US, Britain, Aussies, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Philippines and Vietnam need to establish a permanent allied fleet in the South China sea and constantly move about in international waters as they please similar to the way we did against the Japanese before WWII. This would be more of a thorn in the chicoms hides than the occasional freedom of navigation cruises.
It’s amazing the parallels between China today and the Japan of the 30s and 40s, with their desire of creating a “Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.”
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