The Royal Australian Navy's helicopter-carrying troopship HMAS Canberra leads the air warfare destroyer HMAS Hobart, the frigates HMAS Stuart and HMAS Arunta, and the support ship HMAS Sirius. Photo: Reuters “Australia is committed to a secure, open, prosperous and resilient Indo-Pacific region. It's in the face of such an attitude that Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison recently announced a $575 billion Defence Strategic Update, highlighting investment in long-range precision-guide missiles, autonomous air, sea and land craft, new sensor networks and homemade ammunition facilities. HMA Ships Canberra, Hobart, Stuart, Arunta, Sirius; US navy ships USS Ronald Reagan, Antietam, Mustin; Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force's Akizuki-class destroyer JS Teruzuki. "If US military provocations in the South China Sea persist, China could be left with no choice but to conduct more drills and deploy more warships and warplanes in the South China Sea," it cites Beijing's Defence Ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang as saying. Your News is the place for you to save content to read later from any device. Some of the navy's newest and most capable vessels are there in a show of support of Washington's hardening stance towards Beijing. This fortified airfield is in the disputed Paracel island chain Beijing seized from Saigon during a short war in the 1970s. The last time such a large-scale operation was conducted from the contested Woody Island was in 2016 after an international tribunal at The Hague rejected China's "nine-dash-line" territorial claim. China’s warships have been keeping a close eye on vessels in the South China Sea. "The Task Group has joined the and in the Philippine Sea prior to transiting to Hawaii for Exercise RIMPAC.
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26 Jul, 2020 8:02am .
Five Australian warships have joined US and Japanese forces in a show of strength as China test-fired live weapons nearby. "China is forced to take countermeasures to safeguard its national sovereignty and territorial integrity," the Global Times declared, announcing the deployment of combat jets to Woody Island. Australian navy helicopter pilots have been hit with laser beams from fishing boats suspected of being part of China’s maritime militia during a recent military exercise in the South China Sea. The incident took place when the Australia's Defence Force joint task group consisting of five ships was travelling through the area on the way to Hawaii for joint military war games with the US and Japan in the Philippine Sea. "The PLA recently conducted maritime target attack drills in the South China Sea and deployed warplanes in an island in the region at a time when the US aggressively sent warplanes for close-up reconnaissance and warships including aircraft carriers," the Global Times states. Photograph:( Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull asserted the right of the Australian navy to travel the South China Sea, after local media reported three Australian warships were challenged by … "The Chinese side's actions are lawful, reasonable and fair," he said. Meanwhile, Beijing's unilateral actions continue to drive Indian Pacific nations together. "As the strategic mutual trust between China and the US has almost evaporated and the US has strengthened its military presence in China's close neighbourhood, the risk of accidental military frictions between China and the US has increased," the Communist Party-appointed editor of the Global Times wrote in a weekend editorial. South China Sea: Australian warships join US, Japanese in Chinese confrontation . The RAN's contribution to the joint task force represents a significant portion of the nation's fleet. Washington, however, is adopting an equally belligerent tone. The Royal Australian Navy warship HMAS Parramatta has conducted exercises with three US Navy ships in the South China Sea. The escalating war of words between Beijing and much of the Western world shows no sign of abating. South China Sea: US ships ready for war as China flexes muscles. ) But recent incursions by China sweeping from Japanese islands through to India's mountainous Himalayan highlands has produced a shift in this attitude. "China should also not rush into announcing an ADIZ in the South China Sea, because it could hurt Asean members more than the US, consequently damaging ties between China and Asean members," the report said. The joint Australian, US and Japanese force will at the weekend move on to Hawaii for larger-scale war games, RIMPAC, involving many Pacific and Southeast Asian nations. In ongoing live-fire drills by PLA in the South China Sea some 3000 live missiles have reportedly been fired at moving targets on the sea and in the air by combat aircraft including JH-7 bombers and J-11B interceptors. Defence Secretary Ren told media it was a legitimate right of sovereign countries to deploy facilities and conduct training on their own territories. The use of advanced J-11B combat jets – which are a copy of the Russian Su-27 Flanker L – has revived fears that Beijing's next move may be to declare an "air defence identification zone" (ADIZ) over large portions of the South China Sea. "The PLA [People's Liberation Army] could be forced to increase its presence with routine deployments and exercises to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity," the state-controlled Global Times news service stated earlier this week. The force assembled in the Philippine Sea in a show of solidarity as territorial tensions soared after Washington last week declared illegal Beijing's unilateral claim to the virtual entirety of the South and East China seas.