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Advanced fighter jets from the United States and China came face to face recently, according to the commander of the United States’ air presence in the Indo-Pacific.“We recently had, I wouldn’t call it an engagement, but we got relatively close to the J-20s with our F-35s in the East China Sea, and were relatively impressed with the command and control that was associated with the J-20s,” said Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, Commander of the Pacific Air Forces during a March 14 interview with the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.The F-35 and J-20 are the most advanced fighters in the American and...

The U.S. Navy has confirmed the authenticity of a video showing the final moments leading up to one of its F-35C stealth fighters being involved in a mishap while landing aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, while operating in the South China Sea. https://youtu.be/bkXiHD9qKzk

he power of the coronavirus pandemic as a potential global “game changer” may be on full display in the South China Sea. China is stepping up its operations in the international waterway while the U.S. Defense department grapples with over 1,500 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in its ranks. The pandemic began in Wuhan, China and peaked in the Communist country in February. China’s numbers may reek of skepticism but by all accounts, they have seen the worst of the disease. Barring any 2nd wave of COVID-19, the country is slowly returning to normal with their military unscathed and at full...

Given China’s position as a classic Asian land power and America’s role as an oceanic hegemon, a military challenge has emerged in the near seas close to China through which the essentials of modern industrial power flow – oil, to name just one. That means the control of the South China Sea is the next step in the establishment of a New Chinese Empire. As in 1938, when Poland lay between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army, the Philippines is the weak point between the U.S. and China. It is common knowledge that America intends to ring the South China...

The brinksmanship between Russian and US militaries has expanded from the air to the sea — and it nearly created a collision today near the Philippines. Just a few days after a mid-air confrontation over the Mediterranean Sea made headlines, the two navies are pointing the finger at each other as well. This time, the US Navy says it will declassify images to show the “unsafe and unprofessional” practices of the Russian navy: A US Navy warship nearly collides with a Russian warship in East China Sea.To avoid a collision "the US Navy ship went full engines back, as...

In the 1990s, political theorists, historians and more than a few political leaders debated this question: Had "transnational forces" associated with globalization made the sovereign nation-state a dysfunctional and potentially dangerous political structure? The 21st-century's revival of Great Power competition -- competition between powerful states that value their sovereignty -- indicates borders still matter. The U.S. and communist China are quite powerful. China's disrespect for borders is fundamental to its clash in the South China Sea. As the century's third decade approaches, evidence abounds that transnational forces have not rendered nation-states impotent. The 1990s debates, however, weren't intellectual fearmongering. Pervasive...

The USS Carl Vinson, a massive nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, reportedly sailed deep in the South China Sea amid U.S.-China tensions over Beijing’s territorial disputes with several American allies in the region. “It shows resolve, and gives decision space to our leaders,” said U.S. Navy Capt. Doug Verissimo, the ship’s commanding officer, referring to the presence of the warship on the South China Sea, the Australian Broadcasting Network (ABC) reported. The captain noted: When they put a carrier strike group somewhere it helps to show that the United States is interested. We don’t have a lot of these, so when you...

(CNN)A US oceanographic vessel Thursday had its underwater drone stolen by a Chinese warship literally right in front of the eyes of the American crew, a US defense official told CNN Friday. In the latest encounter in international waters in the South China Sea region, the USNS Bowditch was sailing about 100 miles off the port at Subic Bay when the incident occurred, according to the official. Bowditch had stopped in the water to pick up two underwater drones. At that point a Chinese naval ship that had been shadowing the Bowditch put a small boat into the water. That...

A Chinese state-owned newspaper said on Monday that "war is inevitable" between China and the United States over the South China Sea unless Washington stops demanding Beijing halt the building of artificial islands in the disputed waterway. The Global Times, an influential nationalist tabloid owned by the ruling Communist Party's official newspaper the People's Daily, said in an editorial that China was determined to finish its construction work, calling it the country's "most important bottom line".

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of National Defense (DND) on Friday confirmed that a Chinese warship has run aground on a shoal located well within Philippine waters, about 60 nautical miles from Rizal, Palawan. The DND said the ship that ran aground was a Jianghu Class, a Chinese guided missile frigate with bow number 560. “We have dispatched our own assets from the Western Command to investigate kung bakit siya andyan. Naaksidente ba? Kung kailangan nila ng tulong, tutulong tayo,” Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said. Australian paper Sydney Morning Herald reported that the Chinese warship ran aground while patrolling the...

Chinese media reports that beginning today the People’ Liberation Army (PLA) will hold six days of military exercises in the East China Sea, a message, analysts say, to the U.S. Navy not to steam its carrier battle groups too close to Chinese shores. While a Chinese military official said the drills are routine, observers say the anti-carrier exercise is intended to pressure the U.S. Navy not to hold joint exercises with the carrier USS George Washington and South Korean ships in the Yellow Sea. Respected China analyst Andrew Erickson says the live fire training aims to demonstrate China’s ability to...

A public announcement saying that the Chinese navy will kick-off a six-day exercise tomorrow in the East China Sea that will feature live ammunition has stirred speculation about the timing of the drill. A fleet under the PLA will take part in the drill from tomorrow to July 5 in waters off Zhengjiang's east coast in the East China Sea, according to a notice published Sunday on the local Wenzhou Evening News at the request of the fleet. The drill will be held from midnight to 6 pm every day. All irrelevant ships are prohibited from entering the region during...

The other day we linked to a piece by a Navy commander warning of increasingly activist Chinese naval exercises in recent months. IISS has a new brief providing useful detail on a number of recent Chinese sorties into the South China Sea. Two exercises in March and April were the first of any real size beyond the First Island Chain, and “indicated that deployments beyond the chain were now official policy,” says London based IISS. The flotillas contained the PLA’s most advanced warships, of Russian manufacture (Kilo class diesel electric subs and Sovremenny class destroyers). In March and April a...

For much of the Cold War, China's navy was little more than an elaborate coast guard. It was barely a blip on the maritime horizons of Japan and Southeast Asia. Today the Chinese armed forces are in the midst of an intense and sustained modernization program, and the navy has emerged as a key service for protecting and advancing national interests. It gets more than one-third of the declared military budget. China's navy, like those of other leading nations, aims to protect vital trade routes, project power and influence, and deter potential adversaries. What makes the Chinese navy significantly different...

The Chinese navy has been throwing its weight around in East Asia. A US Navy commander asks how much longer the US can do anything about it.On the night of March 26 the Cheonan, a South Korean Navy corvette patrolling in the Yellow Sea, mysteriously erupted in a cataclysmic explosion and sank to the bottom. The ship was just off Baengnyeong Island, near the Northern Limit Line, which is the armistice separation line between North and South Korea. Of the 104 crew on board, only 58 survived. Salvage operations confirm the ship was struck by a North Korean heavy torpedo...

BEIJING (AP) — A state-run newspaper said Monday that a Chinese submarine's reported collision with an underwater sonar apparatus towed by a U.S. destroyer last week in the South China Sea was likely an accident. The official China Daily cited Chinese military experts as saying the submarine's collision with the sonar array connected to the USS John S. McCain while sailing near the Philippines probably occurred due to a misjudgment of distance. Yin Zhuo, a senior researcher with the People's Liberation Army's Navy Equipment Research Center, said the American destroyer appeared to have failed to detect the submarine, while the...

WASHINGTON, March 10, 2009 – The United States will continue to sail ships on missions in international waters, a Defense Department official said here today. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the March 8 incident in the South China Sea in which five Chinese ships surrounded the USNS Impeccable -- an unarmed Military Sealift Command vessel – won’t hinder the United States from using international sea lanes. The United States protested the Chinese activity to China’s foreign ministry in Beijing and to the defense attache at the Chinese Embassy here. China rejected the U.S. protests today, and maintains the Impeccable violated...