US Navy Carrier Air Wing & Japanese Planes Demonstrate Joint Power in Philippine Sea “Fly Over”

By Kris Osborn, President, Warrior

Supported by warships on the surface, helicopters and even submarines, a joint US-Japanese maritime force recently conducted an aerial “Fly Over” in formation along strategically critical areas of the Philippine Sea as part of a collaborative war readiness exercise. 

The maneuvers were part of the beginning of the US-led Valiant Shield exercise in the Pacific, a war-preparation drill intended to maintain a strong deterrence posture in highly contested areas such as the South China Sea and the Philippine Sea. It makes sense that the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense force would join this effort, particularly in light of escalated tensions between China and the Philippines and continued turbulence in the highly contested South China Sea. 

A Navy essay on the exercise explained that the USS Ronald Reagan and its Carrier Air Wing conducted war training maneuvers with the “first-in-class JMSDF helicopter destroyer JS Izumo (DDH 183), the Maya-class guided-missile destroyer JS Haguro (DDG 180) and the Taigei-class submarine JS Jingei (SS 515).” Meanwhile, aircraft from the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, U.S. Air Force and embarked Carrier Air Wing 5 (CVW 5) flew in formation overhead.

“The Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group demonstrated our ability to conduct complex, multi-axis and multi-domain operations with forces from not only across the Indo-Pacific, but across the globe,” said Rear Adm. Greg Newkirk, commander, Carrier Strike Group 5. 

While in a certain sense, this kind of collaborative maritime warfare maneuvers may be considered routine, they take on intensified significance as a multi-national, multi-domain demonstration of power in the current threat environment. The US and Japan have indeed been allies for years, as both countries operate ship-based Aegis Combat Systems and have a number of critical weapons systems being developed as “joint” efforts. These include the recently emerging SM-3 Block IIA, Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile Block II and others.

It makes sense that the US and Japan would demonstrate Naval Air Power in support of surface warships in light of several key factors. In recent years, Japan has purchased $35 billion dollars’ worth of F-35s and has already begun operating vertical take-off-and-landing F-35Bs from warships and even mini-carriers. This affords an unprecedented increase in 5th-generation air power projection capability for Japan and greatly enables joint-multi-domain networking with US F-35s; all F-35s operate with a common datalink known as MADL, for Multi-Function Data Link. This means large, networked formations of US and Japanese F-35s can operate along a wide combat envelope to conduct deterrence missions or even launch combat operations if needed.  Certainly US and Japanese warships present allied maritime power, particularly in the realm of Aegis and ballistic missile defense, yet integrating these surface capabilities with multi-national 5th-generation air power seems extremely significant.