As the only nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that the United States can call on in the Indo-Pacific region, the USS Roosevelt has been circling the South China Sea and surrounding waters. Judging from the latest information obtained by the War Research Institute, the US Navy's USS Ronald Reagan nuclear-powered aircraft carrier has re-entered the South China Sea, and judging from its location, the US aircraft carrier is currently in the waters south of Scarborough Shoal, while the PLA's 054A missile frigate Sanya is suspected to be tracking the US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at close range. The US aircraft carriers continue to go to the South China Sea, obviously to support the Philippines in the South China Sea, and continue to inject a booster, and at the same time that the US aircraft carrier in the South China Sea is operating and being monitored by the PLA, Indian Air Force fighters have already crossed the South China Sea to the Philippines.
According to the information disclosed by the media, the Il-76 transport aircraft and C-17 strategic transport planes of the Indian Air Force have successively arrived at the Clark base in the Philippines and completed the delivery of the first BrahMos cruise missile. The Indian Air Force also once again demonstrated its own mix of American and Russian weapons in this delivery operation, because the Indian Air Force has strategic transport aircraft produced by both the United States and Russia in the combat sequence. As early as 2022, India signed an agreement with the Philippines on BrahMos cruise missiles, and these three sets of cruise missiles will cooperate with the Philippines to complete the threat of the Bass Strait, Scarborough Shoal and Spratly Islands. Indian Air Force transport planes are now flying to Clark Base and carrying BrahMos cruise missiles in an attempt to get the Philippines to blockade the Bass Strait, a strategic artery in the South China Sea.
For a long time, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has been carrying out intensive operations in the waters around the Bass Strait, on the one hand, because the Bass Strait is called the "underwater corridor of nuclear submarines," and on the other hand, the PLA will also pass through the Bass Strait to approach the eastern waters of Taiwan Island during patrol operations in Taiwan. Previously, the PLA's Shandong aircraft carrier, Type 075 amphibious assault ship and a large number of 052D missile destroyers have crossed the Bass Strait. Although Taiwan's defense department only discloses the trajectory of some PLA carrier-based aircraft and the number of surface ships, it can indeed be seen from the information disclosed by some fishermen and Taiwan media that PLA warships are constantly approaching the eastern part of Taiwan Island. Previously, PLA warships had released a number of Z-9 anti-submarine helicopters and Ka-28 anti-submarine helicopters to appear in the eastern part of Taiwan Island.
The BrahMos cruise missiles delivered by India to the Philippines now have a range of 290 kilometers, which also means that they can pose a threat to a large number of surface ship targets in the Bass Strait, while Japan has deployed Type 12 anti-ship missiles around Miyakojima. Two U.S. Indo-Pacific allies are deploying anti-ship missiles to deter the PLA's operations around Taiwan and out of the Western Pacific, both in order to cooperate with the possible U.S. intervention in the Taiwan Strait and to prevent the PLA from carrying out area denial and anti-access operations by deploying anti-ship missiles.
Will India's BrahMos cruise missiles and Japan's Self-Defense Force's Type 12 anti-ship missiles sink a series of destroyers such as the PLA's 052D? The War Research Institute believes that it is very difficult to sink PLA warships, but this will consume the air defense ammunition carried by the PLA warships to a certain extent in the course of the PLA's operations in the open sea or in the course of carrying out area denial operations. After the depletion of a large amount of anti-aircraft ammunition, PLA warships actually face a higher threat. Text/Iris