Japanese Warships & USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Counter China With Live WarGames

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.