At least for now
the appearance of the British flagship
in the South China Sea had been
anticipated, but it still carries a
significant message as the United Kingdom and its allies look to further
challenge china's expansive territorial
claims in this region using satellite imagery provided by the European Space Agency and NASA US geological survey. Twitter user at Duondong appears to have located the two
aircraft carriers in the south china sea, separated by around 580 nautical miles
of water.
The Shandong looks to be underway just
south of Hanan island where it is home
ported within a huge people's liberation
army navy base. Meanwhile the imagery indicates that HMS Queen Elizabeth is somewhere between the
coast of Vietnam and the island of Borneo.
According to the Hong Kong-based south
china morning post HMS Queen Elizabeth
entered the south china sea for the
first time on monday. The same source
noted that the relationship between Beijing and London is expected to
deteriorate further as britain carries
out military and economic actions that
frustrate beijing's ambitions in this
region.
On the British side there has apparently
been no official confirmation so far of
carrier strike group CSG 21's presence
in these waters. HMS Queen Elizabeth is currently
undertaking its first operational cruise
as part of carrier strike group 21 which
also includes the royal navy type 45
destroyers HMS Diamond and HMS Defender. The type 23 frigates HMS Northumberland
and HMS Ken an Astute-Class
nuclear-powered attack submarine
apparently, HMS Artful and two royal
fleet auxiliary support ships, rRFA tide
force and RFA Fort Victoria.
Also within CSG21 are the U.S Navy's
arleigh burke-class destroyer USS the
sullivans and the Dutch Navy's dead safe
and prevention class destroyer H and LMS Everton. Meanwhile HMS Queen Elizabeth is
embarking on eight F-35B short takeoff
and vertical landing stole stealth
fighters from the UK royal air force RAF. There are another 10 of these jets on
board the ship from the U.S marines core
marine fighter attack squadron VMFA 211
the wake island avengers which is
currently under british command.
Royal navy rotary wing assets comprise
wildcat HMS2 multi-role helicopters, anti-submarine warfare and airborne
early warning and control Merlin HM2
helicopters and commando merlin
helicopters. Other helicopters are
assigned to the U.S Navy and Dutch Navy Destroyers within CSG 21-2. At the same time that CSG 21 appears to
be underway in the south china sea, these
same waters are also hosting a u.s navy
surface action group or SAG which is
drawn from three u.s seventh fleet task
forces and includes the arleigh
burke-class destroyer USS Kid and the
independence class literal combat ship USS Tulsa.
This is according to the navy
the first time a deployed LCS and a
guided missile destroyer have joined to
form a surface task group with the LCS having had a notably troubled service
career so far. Although unconfirmed there are meanwhile
reports of PLA navy maneuvers underway
around Hainan which could involve the
shandong. This is china's second aircraft carrier
constructed in china along very similar
design principles to the former Kuznetsov class carrier Liaoning and
which has been in service since late
2019.
If it is taking part in an exercise of
significant size and scope the shandong
would also be accompanied by its own
support assets. When the carrier-sister Vessel Liaoning was underway in Japan's Miyako strait earlier this year. It was
reportedly joined by two type o five 2D Lugon Class destroyers, one type 0 five
five Renai Class Destroyer, one type 0 five four a Jiangkai Class II Frigate
and one type 901 Fuyu Class fast combat
support ship. That CSG21 would enter the south china
sea had long been expected as part of
the 26,000 nautical mile cruise that
plans to take in visits to 40 nations as
well as various bilateral and
multinational exercises.
