What happened? Warfare is tragic and unpredictable. Any difference in training, maintenance or secret capabilities of both navies — things we wouldn’t know until the shooting starts — could have decisively impacted the scenario. The year is 2016, and two of the U.S. Navy’s latest ships are backing a key ally in the tinderbox of […]
A US navy commander on Monday said China’s reported plan to exclude America from military exercises with Southeast Asian nations in the South China Sea is unacceptable and a violation of international law. Vice Admiral Phillip Sawyer, commander of the Japan-based US 7th fleet, the largest forward deployed maritime force in the region, said Washington […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chinese bombers. Chinese hypersonic missiles. Chinese cyberattacks. Chinese anti-satellite weapons. To a remarkable degree, the 2020 Pentagon budget proposal is shaped by national security threats that acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has summarized in three words: “China, China, China.” The U.S. is still fighting small wars against Islamic extremists, and Russia remains […]
“In vagueness lies the best deterrence,’’ Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin said as he commented on the almost seven-decade-old Mutual Defense Treaty with the United States during his joint press conference with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after their meeting last week. Locsin said he was confident about the assurances given by Pompeo, and […]
Opposition Senator Leila de Lima on Monday urged the Duterte administration to heed United States Secretary Mike Pompeo’s and Malaysia Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s advice to be wary with its loan agreements with China. Doing so, de Lima said, would prevent the Philippines from falling into a debt trap, which may eventually lead to commitments […]
MANILA, Philippines — The U.S. Navy won’t alter its so-called “freedom of navigation” sail-bys in the disputed South China Sea and has pressed ahead with such operations despite a dangerous maneuver by a Chinese navy ship against an American destroyer, a senior U.S. Navy commander said Monday. Vice Adm. Phillip Sawyer, commander of the U.S. […]
In this what-if scenario, Beijing’s SCS war will bring ‘unimagined’ results. China’s claims of South China Sea (SCS) ownership are illegal, but Beijing’s hyper-nationalistic officials increasingly encourage its forces to attack U.S. Navy ships operating lawfully there. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) appears to be calling for war—a war it may well get. But […]
The US announced on Thursday that it would begin testing a whole new class of previously banned missiles in August, but the US’s chief rival, China, has a miles-long head start in that department. The US’s new class of missiles are designed to destroy targets in intermediate ranges, or between 300 and 3,000 miles. The […]
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy sent a flagship through the South China Sea to a port in the Philippines this week, as the Pentagon continues to ramp up its presence in an area China insists is its sovereign territory. The Pentagon confirmed on Friday the freedom of navigation sailing of the U.S. 7th Fleet’s command […]
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said that he and his Vietnamese counterpart Ngo Xuan Lich both agreed to pursue the Code of Conduct (COC) on the South China Sea or West Philippine Sea to avoid tension in the disputed waters. Lorenzana made the remark following his three-day visit in Hanoi from March 10 to March 13, […]