The Joint Staff Office under Japan's Defense Ministry reported on Monday that it had detected the movements of the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong and three escorts in the Philippine Sea.
The Shandong is China first domestically built aircraft carrier and the second in service with the Chinese navy. The 70,000-ton ship is homeported in Sanya in Hainan, an island province facing the contested South China Sea.
The carrier strike group included the Type 055 destroyer Yan'an, the Type 052D destroyer Zhanjiang and Type 054A frigate Yuncheng. The Japanese report said the Shandong was conducting flight operations with carrier-based fighter jets and helicopters while underway in the area.
Miyako forms part of the so-called first island chain, a series of islands connecting the Japanese archipelago in the north through Taiwan and the Philippines in the south.
The Cold War defense concept was aimed at containing Chinese naval activity in wartime, but the Unites States and treaty ally Japan have watched Beijing's fleet expand its peacetime operations far beyond the region's choke points.
China's Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a written request for comment about the latest exercise, which appeared to follow the shortest gap between separate deployments in recent years—just 25 days.
The ship's reappearance coincided with orders from the Pentagon over the weekend for the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln to accelerate its transit from the Western Pacific to the Middle East amid flaring tensions between Israel and Iran.
After departing Guam on Thursday, the Nimitz-class supercarrier joined the Italian navy carrier Cavour and its strike group in nearby waters. The U.S. Defense Department said the Lincoln would rendezvous with sister ship USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Middle East.
Both the Lincoln and the Roosevelt were repositioned on short notice during scheduled Pacific deployments. The Roosevelt arrived in the U.S. Fifth Fleet area of operations in mid-July, while the Lincoln was retasked earlier this month.
The repositioning of U.S. aircraft carriers in response to a possible crisis in the Middle East seemed to widen the U.S. Navy's so-called "carrier gap" in the Pacific, with no other U.S. carriers expected in the Seventh Fleet's area of operations until the fall.
"Carrier availability has been a long-term concern for the U.S. Navy, especially also caused by sustained presence in the Middle East," said Alex Luck, an Australia-based maritime security analyst who writes for the specialist outlet Naval News.
"I think the immediate repercussions for sheer presence in theater in the Pacific are not as troubling as some voices may make it appear," Luck told Newsweek. However, any change in deployment or duration could further reduce the readiness of American aircraft carriers, he said.
The U.S. will struggle to find an alternate platform on par with its aircraft carriers. Neither amphibious assault ships, destroyer groups nor submarines can replace an aircraft carrier's capability or the posture it affords the Navy.
In this December 17, 2019, photo provided by China's official Xinhua news agency, the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong is docked at a naval port in Sanya in southern China's Hainan Province. LI GANG/XINHUA VIA AP
Luck said the Shandong's deployment would have been planned ahead of time. Despite the coincidence of current events, China is more likely to prioritize its naval aviation training regime rather than make a political statement.
The ongoing exercise would be the Shandong's fifth known deployment to the Pacific Ocean, following its three drills last year in April, September and October.
