By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
The Navy’s USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier has been joined by Japanese warships in the Philippine Sea to ensure joint preparation for war contingencies, conduct cutting edge multi-domain training and refine long-standing multi-national interoperability as a powerful “deterrence” presence in the Pacific.
The US Navy’s Carrier Strike Group 5, which includes US destroyers and cruisers, has been joined by a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force Mogami-class Frigate and Murasame-class destroyer in a series of joint operations capable of challenging if not overmatching China.
There are several critical tactical and technological reasons why a joint US-Japanese maritime warfare force could be extremely impactful. The US Navy of course maintains a strong “forward presence” in the Pacific to ensure rapid response time and proximity in the event the PLA-Navy launches a surprise ballistic missile or amphibious assault attack on Taiwan. The US forward-positions amphibs, Carrier Strike Groups and submarines and has even conducted “dual-carrier” operations sufficient to launch a massive air attack campaign on the PLA-Navy should that be necessary. Dual carrier operations, if enabled by sufficient networking, can massively increase sortie rate, expand any mission envelope scope and greatly increase over-target dwell time and large-scale precision attacks from the air. Navy destroyers and amphibs can now operate large numbers of drones, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft sufficient to project and sustain air-surface power in the Indo-Pacific.
While the US Navy may itself be positioned to thwart, stop or even destroy any PLA-Navy attack by virtue of its 5th-generation air superiority, multi-domain networking and targeting and long-range precision weapons, yet should a forward US-Navy presence be fortified by a Japanese maritime war-force, the chance to outmatch or destroy the PLA-Navy becomes much more realistic.
US & Japanese F-35Bs & F-35Cs
The presence of 5th-generation air power is one critical reason why China may be hesitant to invade Taiwan in particular, as carrier-launched F-35Cs and amphibious assault ship-launched F-35Bs could quickly provide air support for any kind of minor or major air attack campaign. A US Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, such as the USS Reagan, can travel with more than 44 F-35Cs and the Ford-class can operate with as many as 75 F-35Cs, a number enabling US Navy forces to project and maintain a massive amount of 5th-generation air power. The America-class amphibious assault ships, such as the USS America and USS Tripoli, can each travel with as many as 15 F-35Bs. Should both US Navy carriers and amphibs be forward positioned in the Pacific theater, the Navy would arguably be very well positioned to achieve air-superiority quickly in the Pacific by establishing wide-envelope, networked F-35 formations.
Added to this equation is the fact that Japan recently completed a massive, multi-billion dollar F-35 buy of its own, six of which are slated to arrive next year. Part of this Japanese buy includes a number of vertical take-off F-35Bs, a 5th-generation support force able to combine with US F-35s through the well-known Multi-function Advanced Datalink (MADL) connecting all F-35s across variants and partner nations.
This US-Japanese alliance suggests that a combined US Navy-Japan 5th-generation force of F-35s would likely be well positioned to establish air superiority in a maritime warfare engagement against the PLA-Navy. According to GlobalFirepower.com, Japan operates 4 Frigates and 36 Destroyers, yet the Japanese Self-Defense Forces are rapidly and massively expanding in response to a growing China threat.
US & Japan vs. China at Sea
While China is known to operate a numerically larger, high-tech Navy, they do not appear to operate sufficient numbers of ocean-launched 5th-generation aircraft. China has two prototype J-31 stealthy 5th-generation carrier-launched fighter jets, but does not seem to operate a combat-relevant force of sea-operated 5th-generation aircraft. China does operate a critical force of J-20 5th-generation aircraft which are stealthy and heavily armed yet restricted to land-based runway take-offs. Chinese J-20s would easily be within reach of Taiwan as it is merely 100 miles from the Chinese mainland, yet impactful formations of J-20s would seem quite challenged to mount any kind of credible 5th-generation force throughout most of the oceans in the Pacific theater. This means the US and Japan would seem well positioned to leverage a 5th-generation air power advantage. Any PLA-Navy amphibious attack would seem ill-equipped to succeed in taking over Taiwan as it would have little chance without air superiority. A PLA-Navy amphibious assault could easily be destroyed from the air by US & Japanese F-35Bs and F-35Cs, and the effort could even be fortified by relevant numbers of F-35As based throughout the Pacific in US territories such as Guam or Japan and the Philippines.
Aegis Radar – Ballistic Missile Defense
There is yet another equally if not more critical tactical advantage presented by joint US-Japanese naval forces in the Pacific, as both countries operate Aegis Combat Systems. Japan is an Aegis radar partner, meaning it operates the same air-and-cruise-missile and ballistic-missile defense system as the US Navy, a circumstance which allows for technical synergies. Such a combined force of missile detection enables a much wider envelope of ballistic missile detection, meaning a surprise Chinese ballistic missile attack on Taiwan would likely be detected and potentially intercepted much more quickly and successfully. The latest Aegis Combat System application, called Baseline 10, combined air-and-cruise missile defense and ballistic missile defense into a single unified system, enabling faster and more coordinated detection. As part of this broader collaborative effort, the US and Japan have together developed a new larger, longer-range and more precise SM-3 Block IIA variant capable of tracking and intercepting ICBMs close to the boundary of the earth’s atmosphere.
Kris Osborn is President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
