Pacific Region Fails to Stabilize
USANN Correspondent Gary Schneider
July 21st, 2004
Washington
Photo of a
Chinese sub
being
destroyed by
Japanese
naval fire
after being
forced to
surface in
Coral Sea
With the situation in North Korea quieting down
after a furious round of diplomatic saber rattling,
the anticipated calm in the Pacific region has
failed to materialize as predicted.
In the past 2 weeks, Japanese naval forces have
encountered and battled with Chinese naval units
in the Coral Sea and Central Pacific.
Despite numerous attacks in the past several
months, it appears according to Pentagon sources,
that Japan is slowly gaining the upper hand.
“From our satellite intelligence,” said a Pentagon
official, “we have seen Japan strike twice in the
past 2 weeks and for the first time they have
succeeded in removing Chinese naval forces from
isolated areas.”
He cautioned however, that the situation in the
China Sea remains more fluid.
“It’s a real potential knife fight in there right
now,” he said. “We’ve seen evidence of over 50
Chinese subs and dozens of Chinese frigates in
that region. And South Korea and Japan have
dozens of units as well. And all are in close
proximity. It’s anyone’s guess what the outcome
will be.”
To-date, US naval forces have remained on the
border of the hotly-contested region.
“We’re keeping the conflict contained. But at this
time, we have no intention of going in unless the
situation worsens.”
US MILITARY NEWS
-----------------------------------------------------
New US Frigate Introduced
On Friday the US Navy revealed a new class of
Frigate, the Michigan-Class FFG.
“The Michigan-class frigate is designed as a low-cost,
high volume frigate strictly for anti-sub warfare,” said
a naval spokesperson.
According to the press release, the Michigan-class will
be armed with approximately 10 of the new Mk50
torpedoes as well as 2 ASW attack helicopters.
“The cost is around $280 million per vessel and can be
mass produced quickly, which the Pentagon
increasingly sees as a necessity to offset the growing
Pacific sub threat.”
Over 40 frigates are expected to be deployed by end of
year 2004.
US Troop Shuffle in North Korea
On July 20th, the 4th and 5th Rapid Reaction Teams
made preparations to leave North Korea for their
home bases in Sri Lanka and South Korea. They will
be immediately replaced by 20,000 US Army troops
stationed at Fort Bliss.
“With Camp Kyle so close to the situation, we feel it’s
time to reduce the troop numbers in North Korea,”
said a Pentagon spokesperson.
Additional Rapid Reaction Team
Announced
The Pentagon announced that an additional Rapid
Reaction Team, the 6th, is currently in the finishing
stages of development and will be stationed at the
Ramstein AFB in Germany.
“Although we’ve scaled back our European presence,”
said one official, “we still intend to maintain a force in
Europe for some time to come and with the proven
success of the RRT, we feel this is the way to go.”
