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Newsweek reported on the 12th that the media learned that a US Navy destroyer encountered several Chinese naval warships while cruising in the Western Pacific last month. The media believes that this sign shows that "the Chinese military is regularly conducting operations in waters farther from its coast." Lieutenant Colonel Megan Green, a spokesperson for the US Navy's Seventh Fleet, replied in an email that the US Navy's "Arleigh Burke" class "Rafael Peralta" destroyer interacted with Chinese warships during its deployment mission, and the interaction between the two sides was "safe and professional."

The destroyer is reportedly one of nine Arleigh Burke-class destroyers of the 15th Destroyer Squadron deployed to Japan. The squadron is the largest destroyer squadron in the U.S. Navy and the main surface force of the U.S. Seventh Fleet in the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans. A post by the U.S. military on Facebook earlier this month showed that the warship returned to Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan after a summer cruise. The warship's official webpage stated that it "protected Guam during the deployment of Chinese and Russian (warships) in the waters," but the message was later deleted. "During forward deployments, our naval forces often interact with foreign forces at sea," Green told Newsweek. But she did not specify whether the encounter took place near Guam, nor did she mention any Russian warships.

The report mentioned that the Chinese and Russian naval fleets concluded their fourth joint maritime cruise last month, but did not disclose the specific route of the joint cruise, only saying that the route covered relevant waters in the western and northern Pacific Ocean. The report believes that judging from the distance, the Chinese and Russian fleets are likely to have reached the waters near the westernmost territory of the United States.

The Chinese and Russian naval fleets carried out the fourth joint maritime patrol in the western and northern Pacific Ocean in July (People's Navy WeChat official account)

Green said that China and Russia "have the right to operate in international airspace and international waters in accordance with customary international law, and have never conducted any actions that are considered a threat to the United States or our partners or allies (during the joint cruise). "The Asia-Pacific region is a highland for peaceful development, not an arena for geopolitical games. China is a partner of all countries and poses no challenge to any country. The United States should no longer use unfounded threats as an excuse to continue to advance its military deployment in the Asia-Pacific region and provoke confrontation." (Wang Huicong)

Further reading

Intercepting Chinese and Russian bombers, the US Air Force was the first to show its weakness

The Chinese and Russian bomber formations conducted their eighth joint air strategic cruise on the 24th and entered the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone of the United States. The "world famous painting" subsequently released by the North American Aerospace Defense Command made the Chinese proud. One netizen gave a narration with a wild imagination: I never thought that my Sixth Master could now take a tour around the coast of the United States, and even have American fighter jets "serving" on the side.

It’s just that the old driver compared it with the “treatment” that the US Air Force had previously “welcomed” Russian bombers, and there seems to be something different?

A pair of F-15s monitoring a Tu-142 during the Cold War

F-22 monitoring Tu-95 near Alaska in 2019

That’s right—in the past, the U.S. Air Force always sent F-15s or F-22s and other twin-engine heavy fighters to perform “reception missions,” but this time, why did the U.S. Air Force only send F-16s and F-35As to accompany our H-6Ks? Did they look down on us?

This time, the only ones following the H-6K in the U.S. Air Force are the F-35A and F-16

Well... of course not. This time, the only ones who "welcomed" the Chinese and Russian bomber formations near Alaska were two F-16 and two F-35A fighters from the United States and two CF-18 fighters from the Canadian Air Force. It's not that the US military doesn't want to use more powerful fighters, but it really can't spare the effort at the moment...

For the United States and the Soviet Union/Russia, the interception of bombers is actually a "cat and mouse game" that has been played for decades. Usually, fighters performing interception missions need to rush to the designated airspace as soon as possible, and be ready to launch long-range air-to-air missiles to implement beyond-visual-range interception when necessary. Therefore, the dispatch speed, climb rate, high-altitude flight speed and long-range search capability of the fire control radar are required to be high. During the Cold War, the Soviet Air Defense Force was specially equipped with high-altitude and high-speed interceptors such as MiG-25 and MiG-31 to deal with the harassment of high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft and bombers from the United States. In this regard, the heavy twin-engine fighters such as the F-15 and F-22 of the US Air Force also have inherent advantages. In the past, the US military intercepted Russian bombers that appeared near Alaska, Guam, Japan and California, and mainly used these heavy fighters.

But now the situation is changing. As the F-15C/D fighters currently in service with the U.S. Air Force are gradually being retired, there are no F-15 series fighters stationed in Alaska. Replacing the F-15 fighters to perform air interception missions in the direction of Alaska are 36 F-22 fighters deployed at the 3rd Fighter Wing at the Elmendorf-Richardson Joint Base. However, the unit has heavy daily tasks and often needs to assist the F-22s of the 154th Fighter Wing at the Pearl Harbor-Hickam Joint Base in Hawaii in performing strategic deterrence missions against the Western Pacific. For example, in 2022, the 3rd Fighter Wing dispatched several F-22 fighters to be deployed at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa for several months. In addition, the U.S. "Emergency Defense" website said that due to the complex maintenance of the F-22, its actual attendance rate has been maintained at around 50% all year round, which is equivalent to only half of the fighters being able to perform missions, further exacerbating the "fighting power shortage" of air interception in the direction of Alaska.

The picture is a screenshot of the video

The U.S. "Power" website stated that in this context, in February 2024, the U.S. Air Force will change the 18th "Intruder" adversary squadron (equipped with F-16C fighters) stationed at the Elmendorf-Richardson Joint Base to the 18th Fighter Interceptor Squadron to assist the F-22 of the 3rd Fighter Wing in performing interception missions. However, the F-16C and F-35A fighters dispatched this time are essentially single-engine multi-mission fighters, and they emphasize ground attack performance. Their maximum flight speed, climb rate and radar detection range are not comparable to those of the F-15 and F-22. As for the CF-18 fighters dispatched by Canada, they are early American-made "Hornet" fighters, and their performance is behind the times, but "it is Canada's only active fighter", which is essentially just to make up the numbers - after all, it is also the North American Joint Air Defense, not the U.S. military alone...

However, the three types of fighter jets deployed by the United States and Canada are not suitable for interception missions. This dilemma also highlights the gap between the US military's ambition to deploy globally and its actual insufficient capabilities.