According to Japanese media reports, the US Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps held a "Noble Fusion" joint expeditionary exercise with the Japanese Self-Defense Force around the island of Taiwan from 3 to 7 july, including the Miyako Strait in Okinawa and the Luzon Strait between southern Taiwan and the Philippines, demonstrating rapid support for defense capabilities against the "first island chain, dealing with "potential hostile acts of aggression," and "deterring China." U.S. Defense Department spokesman Kirby claimed that this is the first time since 2018 that two Land Combat Expeditionary Forces (MEUs) and amphibious combat readiness groups (ARG) have been exercised together in the Indo-Pacific region.
Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported that the United States and Japan dispatched the "Lincoln" aircraft carrier strike group and two amphibious combat readiness groups, and small-scale troops carried out "expeditionary forward base operations" that dispersed operations; mobilized the amphibious assault ship "USS Essex" (USS Essex), the Marine Corps Rapid Reaction Force, and the 11th Marine Corps Expeditionary Force based on the US mainland, with a scale of more than 10,000 people.
During the training, F-35B stealth fighters and Osprey transport aircraft took off and landed on the amphibious assault ship USS America, based on the Sasebo Base in Japan, and the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force Aegis was responsible for air alert; the U.S. Marine Corps lowered the rope from the helicopter to the mother of the ship, and practiced landing with naval hovercraft at the U.S. Blue Beach Training Ground in Kintakecho, Okinawa Prefecture.
During the exercise, the E-2D airborne early warning aircraft took off from the Lincoln to conduct an integrated air combat exercise in the Luzon Strait. On the fourth day, the Amphibious Combat Readiness Group and the 31st Marine Expeditionary Force dispatched F-35B fighters to carry out two live-fire air-to-ground strikes and one simulated strike at the First Island Chain Training Base. In addition, the US Marine Corps quietly increased the number of US "High Mobility Artillery Rocket System" (HIMARS) rocket companies in Japan at the end of last year, doubling the us military's multi-barrel rocket artillery troops deployed in the Indo-Pacific region, thereby strengthening the energy of confrontation with China.
The U.S. military pointed out that in distributed operations, combining the dual teams of MEU and ARG with the aircraft carrier strike group and Japanese forces, the ability of the United States and Japan to command and control lethal forces in disputed areas will be demonstrated, and strategic advantages and comprehensive deterrence will be created.
The green media "Liberty Times" speculated that the joint military exercise between the United States and Japan was to prevent the People's Liberation Army from "sneaking attacks" into the Taiwan Strait. The mainland side has stated on many occasions that it is willing to strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification with the greatest sincerity and the greatest efforts, but if the "Taiwan independence" separatist forces provoke and persecute them, or even break through the red line, we will have to take drastic measures.
The analysis believes that this move by the United States and Japan is not only to train Japan to support the US military operations in the first island chain, but also to test and deploy the US military's distributed maritime combat system.
