Sputnik International by Ilya Tsukanov
Last week, US Indo-Pacific Command announced that a Navy carrier strike group led by the USS Theodore Roosevelt had entered the South China Sea for âroutine operationsâ. The move was followed immediately thereafter by China deploying bombers, fighters, and an anti-submarine warfare turboprop for drills off Taiwan.
Last weekendâs Chinese air drills southwest of Taiwan appear to have been a direct response to the arrival of the US carrier group in the region, with radio chatter collected by the US and its allies indicating that Chinese bomber pilots had been given orders to simulate an attack run on the 88,000 tonne carrier using anti-ship missiles, FTÂ reports, citing sources said to be âfamiliar with intelligenceâ.
Some 28 Peopleâs Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) aircraft, including at least eight H-6 bombers, four J-16 fighters, and a Y-8 anti-submarine warfare plane, entered Taiwanâs so-called âAir Defence Identification Zoneâ (ADIZ) between 23 and 24 January. The deployment came in the immediate aftermath of the arrival of a US carrier strike group in the South China Sea on 23 January.
PLAAFâs maritime strike H-6 bombers can be armed with up to six YJ-12 anti-ship cruise missiles, and/or 6-7 KD-20 air-launched cruise missiles. The former can accelerate to Mach 3 in flight, making them difficult to defend against by carrier groupsâ elaborate air and missile defence systems, such as the Aegis or SM-2 fleet area defence missiles.
The Aviationist contributor David Cenciotti points out that while not confirmed to have been involved in last weekâs missions, modified H-6s can carry the DF-21D, an air-launched version of the DF-21 âCarrier Killerâ anti-ship ballistic missile, which has a range of up to 1,450 km, a speed of up to Mach 6, and a conventional or nuclear payload.
The Pentagon appeared to confirm that the Chinese drills off Taiwan were directed against US forces late Friday, with Indo-Pacific Command spokesman Mike Kafka blasting Chinaâs âattempt to use its military as a tool to intimidate or coerceâ others while stressing that the USS Theodore Roosevelt-led carrier strike group had âclosely monitoredâ all Chinese navy and air force activity. âAt no time did they pose a threat to US Navy ships, aircraft, or sailors,â Kafka stressed.
Biden vs. Beijing
Despite campaigning on trying to fix the ‘toxic’ China-US relationship that came about under Donald Trump, the Biden administration began ramping up tensions with China almost immediately after coming into office last week. Along with the deployment of the strike group to the South China Sea, Washington publicly promised to help Japan defend the Senkaku Islands, the strategic archipelago of uninhabited rocks contested by Tokyo and Beijing thatâs situated in the East China Sea between the Chinese mainland and Japanâs Ryukyu Islands.
