U. S. and allies conducted military exercises in response to spy balloon
2023.02.09 01:10
U. S. and allies conducted military exercises in response to spy balloon
By Tiffany Smith
Budrigannews.com – As part of an effort to simulate high-end combat operations against Chinese fighter aircraft and air defenses, the United States, Britain, and Australia conducted joint air drills on Wednesday over the Nevada desert and beyond.
During the three-week-long U.S.-hosted Red Flag exercises, Reuters spent several hours aboard Britain’s KC-2 Voyager refueling tanker aircraft, which provided fuel for British and American fighter jets on Wednesday.
Red Flag’s 414th Combat Training Squadron commander, Colonel Jared J. Hutchinson, stated that the annual drills were unrelated to any recent events. Tensions rose when a suspected Chinese spy balloon was shot down by a US fighter jet on Saturday off the coast of South Carolina.
Citing U.S. policy, Hutchinson stated, “(China is) just the pacing challenge that we train to so that we’re ready… We think that if we’re ready for China, we’re ready for anyone.”
The focus of the exercises was on enhancing the interoperability of the air forces of the United States, Great Britain, and Australia and addressing the vast distances they would face when operating across the Pacific.
That means acting as a kind of air-to-air gas station for the crew of the Royal Air Force’s Voyager, supplying fighter aircraft carrying out the simulated mission with fuel.
During the Red Flag exercises, Air Mobility Force commander Air Commodore John Lyle told Reuters that the mission would be to bring the air forces into “an area where there has been an invasion by a hostile country.”
Lyle stated, “So our role will be to support the force to effectively proceed into the area that has been occupied and to undertake targeting of key assets to allow us to degrade the enemy’s capabilities,” without naming China or describing the simulated area that had been invaded.
In recent years, Beijing’s pressure on Taiwan, an island China views as a breakaway province, has become a source of growing concern for the Pentagon.
During the exercises, Britain flew Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets in addition to tanker aircraft. According to the information provided by the organizers of Red Flag, Australia contributed EA-18G Growler aircraft.
Despite spending billions of dollars to assist Kyiv in repelling Russian invaders, the United States government has identified China as its top strategic priority.
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns warned last week in Washington that the United States knew “as a matter of intelligence” that Xi had instructed his military to be prepared for an invasion of Taiwan by 2027.
Burns stated at a Washington, DC, event, “Now, that does not mean that he’s decided to conduct an invasion in 2027, or any other year, but it’s a reminder of the seriousness of his focus and his ambition.”
