On the 22nd of this month, the United States and the Philippines held a joint military exercise codenamed "Shoulder to Shoulder", which was the largest in history. The two sides sent about 16,000 people, including 5,000 from the Philippines, 11,000 from the United States, and observers from more than a dozen countries around the world.
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It is not difficult to see from this code name that there are two meanings: First, the United States wants to carry out deeper cooperation with the Philippines, which has historically loved and killed each other, but on the South China Sea issue, the two countries are in cahoots. It has been making a big fuss about the South China Sea issue, violating China's territorial sovereignty, and vainly trying to internationalize the South China Sea to achieve so-called freedom of navigation.
The Philippines has also been coveting the waters of Ren'ai Jiao and Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea for a long time, and in particular, in recent years, the Philippine maritime department has often dispatched coast guard ships and even directly dispatched warships to invade the waters of the South China Sea, and the mainland has also resolutely intercepted them.
Second, it is also aimed at encircling China at sea. The United States has always wanted to build a chain of Pacific islands to trap China in the Pacific. And in the East China Sea, there is Japan. In the South China Sea, the Philippines does not have as much maritime power as Japan, and the United States naturally has to worry a lot. And this "shoulder to shoulder" also means that the United States will be more deeply involved in the situation in the South China Sea.
However, although the two countries have held military exercises in a grand manner, the process has been very stretched, starting with the United States
The aircraft carrier "Roosevelt" originally wanted to join the exercise to gain momentum. Recently, however, it abruptly withdrew from the South China Sea and has been cowering near the Natuna Islands. Another US amphibious assault ship, the USS Boxer, was also absent midway due to technical malfunction.
However, Australia has been extremely active in this joint military exercise. An E-737 AWACS aircraft was sent to the South China Sea, and this AWACS aircraft has a great background. Don't look at Australia as the little brother of the United States, but the United States has not treated this little brother badly, this E-737 early warning aircraft is a new type of active phased array radar early warning aircraft tailored by the United States for Australia, and it is even more advanced than the US military's own E-3 early warning aircraft.
The E-737 does not adopt a disc radar, but a balance beam design, and the fuselage adopts the main body of the Boeing 737-700 passenger aircraft, which greatly improves the range and combat radius of the AWACS aircraft. Due to the use of balance beam design, the air resistance of the machine is greatly reduced compared to the disc design, and the maneuverability is much better. According to public data, the AWACS aircraft can detect a distance of 600 kilometers, and can also share data with its own fighters, and can also track hundreds of targets.
The reason why Australia wants to send the E-737 early warning aircraft to the scene this time is that, on the one hand, it is to respond to the call of the United States and show its strength. On the other hand, the aircraft also has an important task - reconnaissance of the Chinese J-20. Since the US aircraft carrier Roosevelt has withdrawn from the South China Sea, the AWACS aircraft on the aircraft carrier cannot fly in the South China Sea, so the United States wants to use Australia's AWACS aircraft to detect the J-20.
It's just that this good calculation of the United States will come to naught. Although this early warning aircraft is relatively good, Turkey and South Korea have also purchased the early warning aircraft, but after all, the E-737 is a product of 2004, at that time only the US military in the world had a stealth fighter, which means that the E-737 has a weak ability to detect stealth fighters, and its own strength does not have the ability to detect stealth fighters. Moreover, China's J-20 is the latest product, and its stealth design and coating are the crystallization of the highest technology, which is so easy to detect. It is almost impossible to detect the latest fourth-generation fighter with an old AWACS aircraft.
Moreover, there is another small detail of this joint military exercise, that is, the target of the attack is the Philippine Navy supply ship "Carilaya", which is the only Chinese-made warship in the Philippines. It can also be seen that the United States and the Philippines are completely hostile to China.