America's Inferiority is becoming Apparent

New Asian Naval Exercises Announced!

February 15, 2006 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 "and clearly shows that American military might is still 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.

A major Pentagon review of US military strategy earlier this month singled out China as the country with the greatest potential to challenge the United States militarily.
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."
The QDR report noted China's secretive military buildup since 1996.

Some analysts also see recent China-Russian joint war-games as an unmistakable sign of China's semi-secret desire to wrest military and economic power in the Asia-Pacific region from the United States.

It has been at least 10 years since four aircraft carriers have operated in the Pacific Ocean at one time. 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.

Elaborating on the exercises, Brown said, "As the QDR mentioned, it is important for us to be focusing on the our ability to wage war in the Pacific theater.