By Thai Newsroom Reporters
IN WHAT WAS SEEN as a rare airborne phenomenon, a Boeing B-52H Stratofortress bomber of the United States air force has recently joined a few Philippine combat aircraft in an air patrol over the tension-filled South China Sea.
The US air force’s B-52H bomber flew across the Pacific Ocean from Andrews air force base in California to join the Philippine air force’s FA-50 Fighting Eagle light attack jets in the rare air patrol over the island republic’s exclusive economic zone in the disputed South China Sea where China’s naval ships have intermittently engaged in maritime provocations and standoffs with the Philippine navy ships since the last several months.
In times of possible armed conflict in the West Pacific region, the B-52’s latest drill showcased the gigantic bomber’s operational capabilities to support and assist the US treaty allies including Japan and South Korea in the East China Sea as well as Taiwan and the Philippines in the South China Sea.
A squadron of the US air force’s B-52H bombers can readily operate in support of the US Seventh Fleet in charge of the Indo-Pacific region in addition to the US navy’s Super Carrier Group ships accompanied by carrier-based fighters, attack aircraft and others.
In the meantime, as many as five US aircraft carriers have recently sailed in the West Pacific region in the wake of sustained tensions between the Philippines and China which have invariably made unilateral, mutually contradictory claims of territorial integrity over submerged reefs and atolls in the South China Sea.
Those Nimitz-class flattops included USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70), USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), USS George Washington (CVN-73) and USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), all escorted by cruisers, destroyers and other force support vessels as well as squadrons of Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters, among other carrier-based aircraft.
In regard to maritime and air deterrence programmes among Southeast Asian countries, not only the air force of Thailand which is one of century-long allies of the US but the Philippine air force is also largely inclined to choose either to procure a squadron of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70/72 fighters or a dozen Saab JAS 39 Gripen fighters to meet China’s unabated threats with relatively large fleets of warships and combat aircraft.
The planned procurement of either type of upgraded fighter jet is part of the Philippines’ Horizon 3 air force modernisation scheme for which an estimated US$35 billion in funding has been reportedly earmarked in addition to a squadron of now-deployed South Korea-built FA-50 Fighting Eagle light attack aircraft.
Maritime provocations and standoffs between the Chinese and Philippine naval forces have been intermittently reported off Scarborough Shoal, a fishery-abundant coral reef over which both sides have laid disputable, overlapping claims of territorial integrity.
Apart from China and the Philippines, other Asian claimants of territorial integrity over a number of resources-rich reefs and atolls around the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea include Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam.
In a recent development, a Chinese Coast Guard ship purposefully sailed in a near-collision course toward a Philippine Coast Guard vessel off the disputed reef in what was seen by the latter as a dangerous maritime provocation.
The intermittent events in which China’s navy ships had intentionally made their presence felt in belligerent, provocative manners in the East China Sea and South China Sea apparently prompted the US navy and air force as well as those of the treaty allies to conduct joint naval and air exercises to hone the combined operational capabilities to safeguard and promote an international freedom of navigation in the open seas.
CAPTIONS:
Top: A US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bomber flies alongside a Philippine FA-50 fighter over the South China Sea, on Feb. 19, 2024. Photo: Philippine air force and published by Stars and Stripes
Front Page: A B-52 bomber seen here in a file picture. Credit: Reuters and published by BBC
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