China dispatches Warships towards Japan and Taiwan as US Navy struggles with coronavirus

It seems the Chinese Navy do not rest nor let rest their east neighbours: The Liaoning Aircraft Carrier and its strike force (two guided missile destroyers, two multi-role warships and one supply-class fast combat support ship) passed 262 miles southwest of Nagasaki’s Danjo Islands about 7 p.m. on Friday 10th, then through the 155-mile-wide strait halfway between the Japanese islands of Okinawa and Miyako on Saturday 11th, then turned south and finally passed east of Taiwan on Sunday 12th the Miyako Strait, according Japanese officials talking under the condition of anonymity, and according the South China Morning Post, which cited the Taiwan Ministry of Defense, and the Japanese Sankei News, which also cited the Taiwan Defense Ministry.

Meanwhile, the Aircraft Carrier USS Reagan, undergoing maintenance at its homeport of Yokosuka Naval Base since November, is preparing for deployment and more than 1.000 sailors assigned to the Reagan and its strike force have been bussed to Yokota Air Base and Naval Air Facility Atsugi over four days last week to sequester themselves prior to deployment, according to the Task Force 70 post: “Once 14 days are complete, every sailor will provide a nasal swab sample that will be processed and returned. This process will take an additional 2-3 days before our COVID-free team embarks on Reagan,” according to the post, referring to the disease caused by the virus.

Currently, the Liaoning is the only aircraft carrier present in the Western Pacific; however, the USS America, a smaller amphibious assault ship that carries F-35B Lightning II stealth fighters, is underway in the East China Sea, as the USS Roosevelt is sidelined in Guam, where much of its crew are undergoing isolation to stem a coronavirus outbreak. The ship meanwhile is being sanitized before it can return to sea. 

¿What if all the wolves decide to attack now?

With a forced aircraft carrier in port and nuclear missile crews hit by Covid-19, the United States are now facing the possibility of a large-scale opportunistic attack, taking advantage of the drop in defenses on all fronts: According to Hans Kristensen, a nuclear weapons expert at the Federation of American Scientists, all US nuclear facilities except one have been affected by the virus.

Fortunately, the Pentagon has been completely proactive in establishing a "bubble" system in early March, creating two separate operational teams for submarines and nuclear missile silos. However, it is worth considering to what extent these measures should have been adopted previously, considering that on Thursday 9 the Newsweek magazine published a map showing that cases of coronavirus had appeared in 150 military bases.

In addition to what was reported by Newsweek, it is known that four aircraft carriers have also been reached, among which the aircraft carrier USS Roosevelt stands out, forced to dock in Guam for a long period due to an outbreak that has affected 416 of the 4.800 on board . The other three aircraft carriers affected have been USS Reagan, docked in Japan, and USSs Vinson and Nimitz, both under maintenance in Washington state.

Perhaps the United States have done the big mistake in being so transparent, because nature shows us time after time that wolves get emboldened as more weakness they perceive in their prey. ¿Will China take advantage to expand its military presence further into the Pacific? ¿Will Russia fail to take advantage of this golden opportunity to strengthen its military presence in the Arctic? Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, North Korea... ¿Will all of them fail to seize this opportunity to deliver the great blow to their eternal and hated enemies? ¿Or perhaps are all of them just waiting for the best moment to deliver the great blow, when the United States will show its maximum level of weakness? I prefer not imagine it. In that case, May God mercy all of us. Good afternoon, and good luck.

Veinte mil millones de dólares para contrarrestar a China en el Pacífico

El almirante jefe del comando Indo-Pacífico, Philip Davidson, pretende gastar veinte mil millones de dólares en un ambicioso proyecto concebido para dispersar más tropas y armamento avanzado en todo el Pacífico, desplegar sistemas de defensa antimisiles y crear una red de campos de entrenamiento conjuntos que se extiendan desde California hasta Japón.

La propuesta pretende que la región del Pacífico sea la prioridad número uno del Pentágono, de acuerdo con la Estrategia de Defensa Nacional, que se enfoca a impedir a toda costa la supremacía militar china. Esto es algo que según Davidson se está olvidando a la hora de asignar fondos, ya que la cantidad solicitada constituye tan sólo un 80 por ciento de lo que Washington lleva gastado en la EDI (European Defense Initiative) durante el último lustro.

El proyecto divide el esfuerzo en cinco segmentos, cuyas inversiones conjuntas  equivaldrían a 1.600 millones de dólares en el presupuesto fiscal 2021, y 18.400 millones entre 2022 y 2026. La partida más importante asciende a 5.200 millones para inversiones en sistemas de defensa antimisiles. En definitiva, la idea de Philip Davidson es enviar a China un mensaje muy claro, y es que abandone toda ilusión de contrarrestar la supremacía militar norteamericana en la región del Pacífico.

No obstante y a pesar de todos estos esfuerzos, la situación podría complicarse en esa zona a corto plazo ya que los dos portaaviones asignados están actualmente "fuera de combate": El USS Reagan está siendo reparado en Japón, y el USS Roosevelt permanece en cuarentena detenido en Guam por un serio brote de COVID-19 entre su tripulación. ¿Cómo aprovechará China esta situación? El tiempo lo dirá. Son momentos inciertos, y cualquier error de cálculo podría desembocar en una espiral de violencia incontrolable.