Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen visited Tokyo last December, a week after Keen Sword 2011 ended.
The next month the USS Carl Vinson nuclear-powered supercarrier, equipped to carry 90 fighter jets and helicopters, and two guided missile destroyers and a guided missile cruiser engaged with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force in war games in the East China Sea.
In Late January the armed forces of the U.S. and Japan conducted the annual bilateral Yama Sakura command post exercise to "practice defending Japan" in the southwest of the country with the participation of 6,000 troops. Ahead of the event the spokesman for U.S. Army Japan and I Corps Forward, "the Army's newest rapid-response contingency unit in Japan," stated:
"We're preparing for an enemy with all kinds of capabilities." [25]
The U.S. is to spend $3.7 billion over the next five years to develop as many as 100 "new, stealthy, long-range, manned bomber[s] likely specifically intended to penetrate Chinese air defences." The new warplane, as yet unnamed, is reported to be a long-range, nuclear-capable penetrating bomber with the option of being piloted remotely.
"The Pentagon's bomber development coincides with the scripting of a new battle plan aimed at preserving US military capabilities in the Pacific. This so-called AirSea Battle plan is meant to help coordinate US Navy and Air Force ships and planes...." [26]
On February 21 the commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, which is based in Yokosuka, Japan and is the largest overseas navy fleet in the world, encompassing over 48 million square miles - the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean with the Kuril Islands at the northern tip of its area of responsibility - Vice Admiral Scott Van Buskirk was in Hong Kong where he said:
"The 7th Fleet has actually increased its capabilities in several significant ways. The ships and aircraft that we operate today are vastly more capable than they were just a few years ago. At the same time, we have enhanced our maritime partnerships with navies around the region, enabling us to work together cooperatively more than ever before."
He said that at any given time there are 70 U.S. warships in his fleet's area of responsibility and "cited the deployment to Japan of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington...with greater speed, range, ammunition stowage and endurance, as an example of how the fleet's capabilities have increased."
The commander also highlighted "the deployment of the Ohio-class fleet ballistic missile submarines (SSBN), the 60-40 split of attack submarines from the Atlantic to the Pacific and the recent deployment of the Virginia-class submarine USS Hawaii (SSN 776), which reflects the fleet's growing capability under the sea."
Van Buskirk touted "upgrades to surface ships, including Ballistic Missile Defense capability and enhanced sonar suites, making them 'increasingly potent,'" emphasizing that "Our alliance with Japan continues to be the cornerstone of our forward presence in Asia...." [27]
The U.S. recently completed this year's Cobra Gold military exercise in Thailand. "The participation of Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia makes the 30th annual joint exercise one of the world's largest multilateral military maneuvers." As a testament to the dramatic expansion of a U.S.-led Asia-Pacific NATO, the exercise also included observers from India, Sri Lanka, Laos, Brunei, Mongolia, the United Arab Emirates and New Zealand among others.
Since the last Cobra Gold was held in June of 2010, "the US has held around 20 joint military maneuvers with nations in the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan and South Korea." [28]
This month Lieutenant General Patrick O'Reilly, director of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, said that "The United States plans to deploy the Standard Missile-3 Block IIA upgrade by 2018" in a letter to Nobushige Takamizawa, director general of policy at the Japanese Defense Ministry.
"The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency is pressing Tokyo to clear the sale of advanced missile interceptors, codeveloped with Japan, to third countries and to agree to joint production." [29]
As noted above, Standard Missile-3 deployments are slated for nations like Poland, which borders Russian territory, and Romania, which lies across the Black Sea from Russia.
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