2 US aircraft carrier strike groups join forces right on China’s doorstep
The USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group and the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group joined together to conduct security operations near Chinese-controlled islands in the South China Sea on Feb. 9, 2021.
The two carrier strike groups entered the South China Sea to conduct “dual carrier operations in the Indo-Pacific in support of maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts.”
Both aircraft carriers come with their own full complement of carrier-borne aircraft and each carrier strike group consists of several supporting warships.
According to a Navy press release, Carrier Strike Group 9 (CSG 9) led by the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), included Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 11, the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill (CG 52), Destroyer Squadron 23, and the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Russell (DDG 59) and USS John Finn (DDG 113).
Carrier Strike Group 11 (CSG 11) led by the USS Nimitz (CVN 68), Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 17, guided-missile cruiser USS Princeton (CG 59), the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, USS Sterett (DDG 104), and Destroyer Squadron 9.
“We are committed to ensuring the lawful use of the sea that all nations enjoy under international law,” Rear Admiral Jim Kirk, commander of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group said.
The U.S. operations, often referred to as Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPS) are used to assert the U.S. right to freely navigate international waters.
Following conflicts over trade, technology, and capital markets, tensions between the US and China continue to rise with the latest escalation coming after a US Navy warship sailed near China-claimed islands in the South China Sea on Wednesday. This was the second sailing of a warship near China's heavily disputed islands under the Biden administration, according to Reuters.
The US Navy's 7th Fleet's USS Russell (DDG-59), an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, sailed within 12 nautical miles on a "freedom of navigation operation" (FONOP) of the Spratly Islands, consistent with international law.
"This freedom of navigation operation ("FONOP") upheld the rights, freedoms and lawful uses of the sea recognized in international law by challenging unlawful restrictions on innocent passage imposed by China, Vietnam and Taiwan," Lt. Joe Keiley, a spokesman for the US Navy's 7th Fleet, said in a statement.
The two destroyers' sailings in the South China Sea come a little more than one week after USS Theodore Roosevelt and USS Nimitz, two supercarriers, conducted rare drills in the heavily disputed waters.
"Unlawful and sweeping maritime claims in the South China Sea pose a serious threat to the freedom of the sea, including freedoms of navigation and overflight, free trade and unimpeded commerce, and freedom of economic opportunity for South China Sea littoral nations," Keiley said in the statement.
The heavily disputed waterway is one of the flashpoints in the US-China relationship, including a trade war, technology war, US sanctions, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Over the past year, the US has increased aerial patrols, and US Navy warship sails through the disrupted region and near and through the Taiwan Strait, an exercise aimed at angering Beijing. Such "close encounters" and US flyovers and sail throughs in the South China Sea and near Taiwan became more frequent during the Trump presidency's tail-end.
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