U.S. and Japan train for 'high-end' warfare on the high seas

Kirk Spitzer | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption US and Japanese navies come together in South China Sea The commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet said on Tuesday, new level of cooperation was established last week by the U.S. and Japanese navies to resupply each others vessels during joint exercises in the seas south of Japan.

ABOARD USS RONALD REAGAN SOUTH OF JAPAN — The United States and Japan have no plans to launch joint patrols in the hotly contested South China Sea, but that hasn't stopped them from conducting a massive joint training exercise in nearby waters.

More than 30 U.S. and Japanese warships and scores of aircraft are taking part in a 10-day exercise in “high-end warfare” that ends Wednesday. The training mission is designed to help U.S. and Japanese forces operate as a single unit should push come to shove in the Asia-Pacific region.

Though planning began more than a year ago, the exercise comes just weeks after a U.S. warship cruised within 12 miles of an artificial island being built by China in the South China Sea. The “freedom of navigation” patrol was intended to demonstrate that the United States does not recognize China’s territorial claims in the vital waterway, parts of which are claimed by five other countries in the region.

The exercise also comes just two months after Japan approved legislation that, for the first time in the post-World War II era, will allow Japanese troops to fight alongside American or other friendly forces even when Japan itself is not attacked.

That expanded Japanese military mission will benefit the U.S.-Japan security alliance, and others in the region, as well, said Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, commander of the U.S. 7th Fleet, based in Yokosuka, Japan.

“This will enable us to help one another because ships can be spread out over the ocean — it could be a Japanese ship, it could be an American ship and you want to be able to protect one another,” Aucoin said. “We think it bodes well for the future, not only for our two countries but for the Western Pacific.”

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who pushed through the new military legislation despite widespread public opposition, said last week that he would not rule out sending Japanese warships on joint patrols with the U.S. Navy. Japan is engaged in a separate territorial dispute with China in the East China Sea.

Aucoin and Vice Adm. Yasuhiro Shigeoka, commander of Japan’s Self Defense Fleet, said on Tuesday that there are no current plans for Japanese warships to join the Americans on patrols in the tense South China Sea.

“We will sail anywhere — fly, operate — where international law permits,” Aucoin told journalists aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan. “But as far as patrols together, maybe in the future, but for right now I think that’s something we’re not doing.”

The Ronald Reagan is one of seven U.S. warships taking part in the annual exercise. The carrier joined the 7th Fleet in August after a yearlong modernization program, replacing the USS George Washington. Sending the most advanced U.S. ships and planes and other military forces to the Asia-Pacific region reflects a U.S. strategy to focus more on that part of the world.

Twenty-five Japanese ships also are taking part in the exercise, including the J.S. Izumo, a helicopter carrier that went into service earlier this year. It is the largest warship the Japanese have built since World War II and is part of a continuing modernization of Japan’s military.