US aircraft carrier keeps tabs on China

[José M. Rico]

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/a ... &version=1

US aircraft carrier keeps tabs on China
By Chikara Shima and Toshimitsu Ishima

TOKYO: The US Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington is now stationed at its new home port at the US naval base in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, marking the first time a US nuclear carrier has been based outside the US.

This “forward home porting” is intended to keep watch over China’s military buildup, especially the modernisation of its naval capabilities.
The deployment of the giant US warship to Yokosuka, however, has raised a number of safety-related concerns, in particular over the handling and disclosure of information between Japan and the US in the event of an accident involving the nuclear-powered carrier.
The Japanese and US governments agreed in October 2005 that the Yokosuka-based conventionally powered aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk should be replaced by a nuclear-powered carrier.
This accord was drawn up in light of the fact the US Navy had no other conventionally powered carriers apart from the Kitty Hawk. The Kitty Hawk is shortly to be decommissioned, while the John F. Kennedy - another of the US Navy’s oldest carriers - was removed from service in March 2007.
The stationing of the George Washington in Yokosuka “is, in principle, merely an extension of US carrier deployments in this country,” a senior official of the Self-Defense Forces said.
The posting of the nuclear-powered carrier, which is far superior compared with its conventional counterparts, has great significance vis-a-vis Japan’s security environment.
The George Washington is one of the world’s biggest aircraft carriers, capable of carrying up to 75 aircraft, including US mainstay F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters and E-2 Hawkeye tactical airborne early warning planes.
The vessel is characterised by its high manoeuverability and speed, meaning it can be dispatched quickly without the need for refuelling.
Military affairs commentator Kensuke Ebata said, “Being able to travel without the need for refuelling is definitely a big advantage (for the George Washington).
“If a situation arises in the vicinity of Japan while the George Washington is operating in, for instance, the Middle East, it will be able to return to its home port in about half the time it would take for a conventionally powered ship to do so. This allows it to exert a certain influence on Japan’s neighbours.”
The US Defense Department’s Quadrennial Defense Review report of February 2006, called for the “forward deployment” of six of the US Navy’s 11 large-scale aircraft carriers in the Pacific.
The deployment of the George Washington to Yokosuka can be seen as part of a US military shift in favour of the Pacific with a view to monitoring China’s rapid military expansion, and nuclear and military threats posed by North Korea.
Although China is still working on modernising its naval capabilities, it already has formed a triangular armada: The East Sea Fleet headquartered in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, the South Sea Fleet based in Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province, and the North Sea Fleet in Qingdao, Shandong Province. These three fleets have a total of about 860 warships, including about 60 submarines.
During and after the 1990s, China has steadily been expanding its naval operations, from the coastal waters of mainland China to seas near to the coast, and beyond.
In spring this year, a congressional hearing in the US revealed that the Chinese military had approached high-ranking US military officers with the idea of “dividing the Pacific into two spheres of influence” between Beijing and Washington, with China taking charge of the seas off Hawaii and westward.
China is particularly keen to amass aircraft carriers, according to the Defense of Japan, the nation’s white paper on national security.
The stationing of the George Washington in Yokosuka clearly implies the US wants to keep such moves in check. – MCT

[RF]

This presumably will also have strategic implications in another direction - US support for Taiwan, against which a large Chinese naval presence can be directed.

[Bgile]

GW just replaced Kittyhawk. No significant change except Kittyhawk was older and needed to be retired. She was the last conventional CV and was kept in commission beyond her time because of Japanese opposition to basing a CVN in Japan.

Whenever I stopped there on an SSN, they measured everything that came off the boat with a geiger counter.