Three US Navy aircraft carriers are patrolling the Pacific Ocean at the same time. And China's not happy

CNN ^ | June 15, 2020 | Brad Lendon

[Tai_Chung]

The deployment of three 100,000-ton US Navy aircraft carriers to the Pacific Ocean for the first time in years has drawn swift reaction from China, with state-sponsored media saying Beijing will not back down to defend its interests in the region. The USS Ronald Reagan and the USS Theodore Roosevelt are both patrolling in the western Pacific, while the USS Nimitz is in the east, according to US Navy press releases. With each vessel containing more than 60 aircraft, it represents the biggest deployment of US aircraft carriers in the Pacific since 2017 -- when tensions with North Korea over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program were at their peak. The presence of the carriers was first highlighted in an Associated Press report on Friday. "Carriers and carrier strike groups writ large are phenomenal symbols of American naval power. I really am pretty fired up that we've got three of them at the moment," Rear Adm. Stephen Koehler, director of operations at Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii, told AP. On Sunday, the Communist Party's Global Times mouthpiece said the carriers could threaten troops in the disputed South China Sea. "By massing these aircraft carriers, the US is attempting to demonstrate to the whole region and even the world that it remains the most powerful naval force, as they could enter the South China Sea and threaten Chinese troops on the Xisha and Nansha islands (Paracel and Spratly islands) as well as vessels passing through nearby waters, so the US could carry out its hegemonic politics," the Global Times report

[Georgia Girl 2]

The chicoms are never happy.

[Herakles]

No reason to have the greatest weapon in the world if it is not loaded. I’ll let your imagination take it from there.

[Gene Eric]

Has Mattis weighed in yet?

Figured he might have an opinion.