The Nimitz Carrier Strike Group is now sailing in the Malacca Strait meanwhile, fixed-wing aircraft squadrons of Carrier Air Wing 5, assigned to aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN-73), landing training on Iwo Jima on Monday ahead of anticipated summer patrol.
Around Japan on Friday, a People’s Liberation Army Navy amphibious task group transited the Miyako Strait to enter the Philippine Sea, the second time this year a PLAN amphibious task group has done so.
USS Nimitz (CVN-68) and two destroyers transited past Singapore on Saturday according to AIS data and photos by shipspotters in Singapore. Nimitz is set to support the Langkawi International Maritime and Aviation 2025 show held on Langkawi Island, Malaysia, according to the carrier’s Facebook page. The Royal Malaysian Air Force posted on its social media page on Monday of the arrival of two F/A-18E Superhornet on Langkawi.
The show’s official site on its display schedule lists nine Superhornets along with two B-52s to perform a flypast on the show’s official opening day on Tuesday, the only day U.S. aircraft will be flying during the show while an official release on ship participation lists Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee as being one of 12 foreign navy ships that will take part in LIMA 2025. The other 11 ships are Bangladesh Navy frigate BNS Khaled Bin Walid (F25), Indian Navy corvette INS Kavaratti (P31), Indonesian Navy corvette and presidential yacht KRI Bung Karno (369) and fast attack craft KRI Kerambit (627), Italian Navy frigate ITS Antonio Marceglia (F597) Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) frigate JS Yahagi (FFM-5), Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) frigate RSS Steadfast (70), Royal Thai Navy (RTN) offshore patrol vessel HTMS Krabi (OPV-551), Russian Navy RFS Hero of the Russian Federation Aldar Tsydenzhapov (339) and RFS Rezkiy (343) and Turkish Navy corvette TCG Büyükada (F-512).
It is unclear as to whether the Nimitz CSG will sail out of the Malacca Strait to head to U.S. Central Command to join the Carl Vinson CSG there following the departure of the Harry S. Truman CSG.
On Friday, Japan’s Ministry of Defense stated in a release that it had been informed by U.S. Forces Japan aircraft assigned to George Washington would do landing training on Iwo Jima. The release said the training for pilots assigned to George Washington to gain landing qualifications in which the pilots land on the runway of a land-based airfield that simulates the flight deck of an aircraft carrier.
The release also stated that the training period would be from Monday until May 31 from 11 am. to 3 a.m. and involves all types of fixed-wing aircraft embarked on George Washington, namely F-35C Lightning II, F/A-18E and F/A-18F Superhornet, E/A-18G Growler and E-2D Hawkeye.
Since 2006, the U.S. military has been relocating training of its aviation assets in Japan to areas outside of Japan such as Guam or to Japanese military bases where such training would not cause noise disruption to the local population. Iwo Jima, having no civilian population since the Second World War with a Japan Self-Defense Force garrison being its only inhabitants. Japan is now developing the island of Mageshima as a training location for U.S. training and also for Japan’s F-35Bs once they enter service. Construction of the facilities on Mageshima though has been delayed by various factors and is now only expected to be ready in 2030 instead of its planned 2027 target.
On Friday, Japan’s Joint Staff Office (JSO) issued a release stating at noon that day, five PLAN ships, namely destroyer CNS Suzhou (132), frigates CNS Zhoushan (529) and CNS Xuzhou (530), amphibious assault ship CNS Anhui (33) and amphibious transport dock Longhushan (980) had been sighted sailing in to the Philippine Sea. A JMSDF P-3C Orion Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) from Fleet Air Wing 5 based at Naha Air Base on Okinawa shadowed the PLAN ships, according to the release.
Anhui conducted a similar transit in mid-February as part of a four-ship amphibious task group though no JSO reports were issued on the ship sailing back the same way or near Japan to return to the East China Sea, making it likely that the amphibious task group returned to the East China Sea via the South China Sea.
China’s military has not made any statements as to whether it is conducting any exercises or engagement in the Western Pacific beyond an ongoing drill in Cambodia nor though the amphibious task group on Friday could be conducting an operational sail in the region. In Cambodia on Monday, transport dock CNS Changbaishan (989) arrived at Ream Naval Port, Cambodia for the annual China-Cambodia joint exercise Golden Dragon taking place from May 14–28 with the exercise focusing on joint counter-terrorism and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations. An official video by the PLA on the arrival of Changbaishan at Ream showed PLAN corvettes CNS Panzhihua (621) and Guangyuan (649) already docked at the port when Changbaishan docked.
Since the inauguration in April of Ream Naval Port, whose upgrade and expansion has been funded by China, Cambodia has opened the port to ships of other navies to dispel the port is solely for use by the PLAN beginning with a visit by JMSDF mine-countermeasures vessel JS Bungo (MST-464) and minesweeper JS Etajima (MSO-306) from Apr. 19-22 followed by Vietnamese People’s Navy (VPN) patrol craft HQ 261 from Apr. 8-30 and a Russian Navy surface action group comprised of corvettes RFS Hero of the Russian Federation Aldar Tsydenzhapov (339) and RFS Rezkiy (343) and fleet oiler Pechenga from Apr. 28 to May. 1.
Earlier on Thursday, the JSO issued a release stating that between the morning and afternoon on that day, a Chinese Y-9 patrol aircraft flew in from the East China Sea, passed between Okinawa and Miyako Island to reach the Philippine Sea and carried out a patrol circuit there before returning back the same way to return to the East China Sea. Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) fighter aircraft of the Southwest Air Defence Command were scrambled according to the release, which included a photograph of the Chinese aircraft taken by one of the fighters.
