USS George Washington and support vessels
This year's Keen Sword (maneuvers with that codename have been conducted since 1986) was not only the most ambitious but was highlighted as marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan, whose Article 5 mandates mutual military assistance should either country become involved in armed hostilities.
The drills were "carried out to practice for guarding against ballistic missile attacks and for defending remote Japanese islands," [4] The first objective presumably pertains to North Korea, the second to China. [5]
The British journalist quoted earlier reminded his readers that the "joint exercises with Asian allies are...a show of strength, sending a signal that the US still has a lot of sway, not to mention firepower, in this region.
"Competition in the seas of the East Asian region is increasing. Just over the horizon from the war games are a group of islands held by Japan, but claimed by both China and Taiwan.
"The islands have untapped offshore oil and gas reserves, and these waters are a vital trade route for goods being shipped around the world." [6]
He was referring to the island chain known as the Senkaku to Japan and the Diaoyu to China, where what may have escalated into an international incident occurred in September.
Keen Sword 2011 included drills near Okinawa, part of the Ryukyu/Nansei Islands to which Japan assigns the Senkaku Islands. It also included interceptor missile exercises the length of Japan, from Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa in the south. (Ryukyu is the designation for islands in the southern half of the chain belonging to the Okinawa Prefecture.)
Shortly after the U.S.-Japan war games ended, two members of the municipal assembly of Ishigaki in the Okinawa Prefecture "briefly set foot on one of the islands at the centre of a bitter territorial dispute between Beijing and Tokyo," to wit Minami Kojima in the Senkaku group in the East China Sea. [7]
Before Keen Sword commenced, USS George Washington and its carrier strike group completed a four-day joint exercise with South Korea in the Yellow Sea, bordered on the north and west by China.
Along the way, the supercarrier took on board over 20 members of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.
The South Korean military participated as an observer in the U.S.-Japan Keen Sword maneuvers for the first time, as Japanese military personnel observed the Invincible Spirit U.S.-South Korea war games in the Sea of Japan/East Sea from July 25-28, for which USS George Washington was also deployed.
The exercise was interrupted for several hours on December 6 when two Russian Ilyushin Il-38 anti-submarine warfare aircraft flew over U.S. and Japanese forces participating in the maneuvers and Japan scrambled F-15s to intercept them. According to a U.S. military source: "It is the second incident in as many months that some have interpreted as a potential strain on Japan-Russia relations." [8]
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