US to hold mammoth naval operations in Pacific amid China warnings

UNITED STATES: Amid persistent warnings about China's growing military clout, the US military said Tuesday it would hold one of its biggest naval exercises in the Asia Pacific this summer.

The large-scale operations will involve several carrier strike groups, each of which includes at least three warships, an attack submarine and a support ship.

Four carriers would be involved in three military maritime exercises one of them touted as the world's largest between June and August in the region, Commander of the US Pacific Fleet Admiral Gary Roughead said in Washington.

Two of the exercises are expected to be largely confined to US forces and held in the Western Pacific while the third involving navies from at least eight countries, including Australia, Chile, Japan, South Korea and Peru, would occur near the Hawaiian Islands.

While the war games would boost bilateral and multilateral cooperation and improve military preparedness, it "also provides a deterrent for anyone who would wish us ill," Roughead told a forum organized by the US-based Asia Society, which aims to bridge ties between the two sides of the Pacific.

The Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), conducted every four years, said a key goal for the US military in the coming years will be to "shape the choices of countries at a strategic crossroads." His spokesman Navy Captain Matt Brown said it could be the largest combined aircraft carrier operations in the Pacific since the Vietnam War.

Aside from the Japan-based Kitty Hawk, the other carriers to be involved in the exercises are the San Diego-based Ronald Reagan and one more each from the Pacific and Atlantic fleets. "I think for an East Coast carrier to be operating in the Pacific probably Vietnam was the last time we had East Coast ships operating up in the Western Pacific," he explained. Washington, Wednesday, AFP