China, U.S. Each Hold Major War Exercises

Once again, we are hearing more about both America's massive naval exercise and also China's mock invasion exercises which are ongoing. this is from a large article in the LA Times:

In a highly unusual move, the Chinese have publicized amphibious military operations being held on mainland-controlled islands in the Taiwan Strait. The war games, which simulate an invasion of Taiwan, involve 18,000 Chinese troops in weeklong land, sea and air maneuvers, according to the state-run media.

The U.S. exercise, dubbed Summer Pulse 2004, involves seven aircraft-carrier strike groups, 50 warships, 600 aircraft and 150,000 troops around the globe. It has been described as one of the biggest military exercises ever staged.

For the U.S., sending more than one or two aircraft carriers near Taiwan's coast "would be very unique," said Andrew Yang, an analyst at the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies in Taipei, an independent think tank focused on military issues.

And here is another interesting part.....

In the Chinese military's mock invasion of Taiwan, SU-27 fighter jets will reportedly support an amphibious landing on Dongshan Island, about 170 miles off the Taiwanese coast, state-run media said. On Monday, however, Dongshan appeared quiet.

Shen Lili, an island travel service worker, said, "I can't see anything. And this is a military secret. We are not supposed to look anyway."

Here is the full article:

www.latimes.com... ld/world/la-fg-wargames20jul20,1,7503619.story?coll=la-headlines-world

It requires subscription, which is free.

One of the other things which I took from the article was that it stated that not all of the carriers will be off the China coast as we have been led to believe earlier, is this truth I wonder, or simply made up to reduce the impact of the exercise in the media?

isn't this : www.abovetopsecret.com...

the same war game ?

Originally posted by elevatedone
isn't this : www.abovetopsecret.com...

the same war game ?

Well there are a number of articles about this and Summer Pulse both on ATS and all over the web, but this new LA Times article contains information and commentary which is new and therefore may be interesting to those following the story.

From another bbs:

...in this rather dangerous game of "chicken"? They are:

1. Kitty Hawk (CV63), commissioned in 1961, is apparently the closest to any potential flash point around Taiwan. She has a non-nuclear conventional power plant consisting of eight boilers, four geared steam turbines, and four shafts.

2. Enterprise (CVN65), commissioned in 1961, which is our oldest surviving nuclear carrier. She has eight old-style nuclear reactors and four shafts.

3. Kennedy (CV67), commissioned in 1968, which also has a non-nuclear conventional power plant consisting of eight boilers and four shafts.

If one were inclined to be cynical, one could wager a guess that the three oldest ships might be considered expendable by anyone wanting to create an incident that might kick off a war with China.

Here are the commissioning dates of the remaining ships listed in the article. They are ALL very new, with two nuclear reactors and four shafts each:

George Washington (CVN73): 1992
John C. Stennis (CVN74): 1995
Harry S. Truman (CVN75): 1998
Ronald Reagan (CVN76): 2003

end of excerpt.

It seems that US might use the three old and soon decommissioned carrier as decoy to provoke war with China. This August is a dangerous time indeed.

China better have more troops that 18.000 if they plan to take Taiwan also zcheng the US if it wanted to sink its own ships to frame china wouldn't use carriers to many people and expensive jets and equipment maybe 1-2 cruisers or destroyers might do the same job if they wanted to. Remember pearl harbor no carriers just old battle ships and destroyers.