Recently, the United States and the Philippines shoulder-to-shoulder joint military exercise kicked off, judging from the battle it posed, the United States and the Philippines can be described as menacing this time. We look at it from three aspects:
[The U.S.-Philippine military exercise has obvious implications for China]
First of all, from the perspective of the scale of the military exercise, the number of people participating in the military exercise is about 16,000 to 17,000 people, of which the number of US troops accounts for more than two-thirds, and the Philippine coast guard is also participating in it for the first time, which is one of the military exercises in which the United States and the Philippines have invested the most troops and energy in recent years.
Second, judging from the location and content of the exercise, the exercise will be conducted on the high seas within 12 nautical miles of the Philippines and about 22 nautical miles from the coastline; in the course of the exercise, the United States and the Philippines will simulate the recapture of Kalayaan Province and Batanes Island, which are "illegally occupied by enemy forces," as well as Palawan Province in western the Philippines, of which the former is closer to the mainland's Taiwan Island, while the latter is close to Ren'ai Jiao in the South China Sea and other areas; in addition, the content of the exercise also includes sinking a simulated "enemy warship," and the one used to act as a simulated warship was made by the mainland The "Lake Carilaya" tanker was decommissioned and sold to Filipino fishermen as civilian tankers.
Third, judging from the equipment of the military exercise, long before the start of the exercise, the United States deployed the "Typhon" medium-range missile launch system on the Philippine island of Luzon on the grounds of enhancing the authenticity of the exercise. Generally speaking, a set of "Typhon" system includes four launch vehicles, as well as supporting command vehicles, loading vehicles and other vehicles, and the whole system can be delivered by C-17 transport aircraft, and the system is very mobile and deployable.
[The "Typhon" medium-range missile launch system is deployed on the Philippine island of Luzon]
And the attack power of the system should not be underestimated, it can be loaded with "Standard-6" interceptor missiles and "Tomahawk" cruise missiles. Among them, the "Tomahawk" cruise missile has a range of up to 1,800 kilometers, a low flight altitude, and at the same time has a certain stealth capability, strong penetration capability and battlefield survivability, and can hit ground fixed targets and moving targets, including naval vessels. The "Standard-6" was originally an air defense and anti-missile missile, but after being improved, its functions are more diverse, and it can not only carry out air defense and anti-missile, but also strike fixed targets on the ground, and can also be used to strike at moving targets such as ships.
Although the United States and the Philippines have repeatedly stressed that the military exercise does not have any intention of targeting other countries, its hostility to China is very obvious in every way.
For the United States, the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait are powerful trump cards to contain the development of the mainland, and in the current situation of the continuous expansion of the conflict in the Middle East and the continuous delay of the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield, the United States, which has been constantly dragging its feet, is eager to pull back China's pace of progress and strive for its own development space. This military exercise is undoubtedly a key step for the United States to escalate the regional situation and drag China down.
Through this joint exercise, the United States and the Philippines hope to further strengthen their bilateral alliances and enhance their cooperation capabilities, and try to use this cooperation to deepen security cooperation with more partners and allies, and attract more countries, such as the United Kingdom and Canada, to join them in their so-called "security cooperation" in the South China Sea. It is worth mentioning that under the continuous promotion of the US military, the current war in the South China Sea can be said to be on the verge of breaking out, not to mention China and the Philippines, and even China and the United States have almost exchanged fire.
[U.S. F/A-18 fighter jets run to the South China Sea to provoke]
A few days ago, the Chinese side released footage of a fierce confrontation between Chinese and US military planes in the South China Sea. Two PLA J-11 series fighters suddenly encountered a provocation by four American F/A-18 fighters, that is, the legendary "Hornet" carrier-based aircraft, over a certain area of the South China Sea. In the course of the struggle between the two sides, the US fighter planes directly locked onto the PLA fighters with fire control radars, and it is important to know that the fire control radar locking on is the last step before firing live ammunition; when the US military built the so-called no-sail zone in Iraq, it was stipulated that as long as anyone uses the fire control radar to lock on to the US military planes, the US military can immediately counterattack without waiting for an order. Now that the US military has locked on the PLA fighter with fire control radar, it undoubtedly means that it is ready to open fire on the Chinese side, but fortunately, both sides maintained a certain degree of restraint at that time, which avoided a conflict.
However, although the United States and the Philippines have been fully provocative, their deployment in the South China Sea is not without loopholes. Judging from the distribution ratio of the forces in this US-Philippine military exercise, it can be clearly seen that its deployment in the northern part of the South China Sea is completely empty, and for the PLA, this is undoubtedly a key point to "break the situation".
Why? Just look at the map. As far as the PLA is concerned, we are not empty in the northern part of the South China Sea, and there are Xisha Islands, and 340 nautical miles east of the Xisha Islands is Scarborough Shoal on the mainland.
【Scarborough Shoal Sand Blowing Reclamation Plan It's Time to Begin】
This means that if the US military continues to provoke, the PLA can blow sand into Scarborough Shoal and reclaim it so that it echoes Subi, Fiery Cross, and Mischief, forming part of the mainland's military deployment in the South China Sea. In this way, the PLA has a military position closer to Subic Bay and Manila.
It should be noted that foreign media recently reported that military experts have discovered traces of the Wuzhen-8 in the direction of the South China Sea, which is a high-altitude and high-speed unmanned reconnaissance aircraft developed and produced by the mainland itself, which can move at high speed at an altitude of 30,000 meters to collect intelligence and monitor enemy movements, and is considered to be the world's leading unmanned reconnaissance aircraft. With its presence, ground-based anti-missile systems are almost an ornament.
In addition, the Wuzhen-8 itself can also be turned into an offensive weapon, and in the event of a forced situation, it can dive down from a height and can also carry out decapitation operations on enemy node targets. When the sand blowing and reclamation work of Scarborough Shoal is completed, and with the help of the Wuzhen-8, it will be difficult for the United States to pose any threat to China even if it deploys more "Typhon" systems in the Philippines.