On Sunday, June 27, in their first visit to Hawai'i, the French government sent 170 Air and Space Force personnel, three Rafale fighter aircraft, two A330 Phenix refueling tankers and two A400M Atlas transports to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu for training with Hawaii based U.S. F-22 fighters, C-17 cargo aircraft and KC-135 refuelers. The French squadron will depart Hawaii on July 5 for Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada for more training with US military units. U.S. Pacific Air Force command emailed that "It is imperative that the U.S. accelerates change in synchronization with allies like France to ensure we are ready for the next fight."
The British Are Coming Too
Besides the French military aircraft arriving in the Pacific, the new British 65,000-ton aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth and its carrier group is heading for the Pacific in what is called the "most important peacetime deployment in a generation" for the United Kingdom.
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said on April 26 that "even as the Pacific's importance to our future economy continues to rise so the challenges to the freedom of navigation in that region continue to grow. Our trade with Asia depends on the shipping that sails through a range of Indo-Pacific choke points, yet they are increasingly at risk."
HMS Queen Elizabeth, the centerpiece of Britain's Royal Navy, departed the UK in May for a world voyage including stops in 40 nations and steaming through the South China Sea. UK Defense Minister Wallace said that while China is "increasingly assertive, we are not going to the other side of the world to be provocative. We will sail through the South China Sea. We will be confident, but not confrontational."
Adding to the numbers of naval vessels in the crowded South China Sea will be the nine escort vessels of HMS Queen Elizabeth: destroyers HMS Defender and HMS Diamond, anti-submarine frigates HMS Kent and HMS Richmond, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary's RFA Fort Victoria and RFA Tidespring, Dutch frigate HNLMS Evertsen and U.S. Navy destroyer USS The Sullivans.
US State Department and US Defense Department: Uphold "International Rules-Based Order"
The State Department said the United States, which has maintained what it calls the "international rules-based order" in the Pacific since the end of World War II, is "committed to upholding a free and open Indo-Pacific in which all nations, large and small, are secure in their sovereignty and able to pursue economic growth consistent with international law and principles of fair competition." In 2019, the U.S. Department of Defense wrote in its strategy document that the Indo- Pacific region is the single most consequential region for America's future.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
