Amid China’s intense military drills near Taiwan, the U.S. is maintaining a robust naval presence in the Western Pacific with two aircraft carriers and an amphibious assault ship.
According to the latest U.S. Naval Institute (USNI) Fleet and Marine Tracker updates, the Nimitz-class carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, flagship of its Carrier Strike Group, has moved into the South China Sea for routine operations.
The USS Lincoln briefly stopped at Naval Base Guam on December 11 after departing from San Diego in late November. The aircraft carrier then traveled to the Philippine Sea southeast of Taiwan before entering the South China Sea.
Recent U.S. Navy photographs released this week show F-35C Lightning II stealth fighters from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 314 launching and recovering from the USS Abraham Lincoln.
The images also show the jets conducting in-flight refueling operations with replenishment ships, highlighting the carrier strike group’s ability to maintain extended flight operations in the Western Pacific.
Complementing the carrier operations, America-class amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli, capable of launching and recovering F-35B short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) jets and currently embarked with elements of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, conducted routine operations in the South China Sea earlier in December.
As of December 22, 2025, Tripoli was operating in the East China Sea together with ships from its Expeditionary Strike Group, including guided-missile cruiser USS Robert Smalls and destroyer USS Rafael Peralta, according to fleet tracking data.
As of December 29, Tripoli has returned to its homeport in Sasebo, Japan, for the holiday period and further training.
Meanwhile, the USS George Washington, homeported at Yokosuka, Japan, as the U.S. Navy’s only permanently stationed carrier in the region, remains pierside in Yokosuka after arriving earlier this month.
This layered deployment, featuring carrier-based F-35Cs from Lincoln, F-35Bs from Tripoli, and the in-port George Washington, signals a strong U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.
China Threatens Taiwan
China launched missiles and deployed dozens of fighter jets and warships around Taiwan for a second day of live-fire drills aimed at simulating a blockade of the self-ruled island’s key ports and assaults on maritime targets.
The two-day war games, “Justice Mission 2025”, which began on Monday, were quickly denounced by Taipei as “highly provocative and reckless”.
At least 10 rockets were launched in quick succession, each sending a booming sound reverberating throughout Pingtan as they soared across the sky. Tourists rushed towards wooden barricades overlooking the sea, whipping out their phones to snap photos and videos of the rockets.
China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) said in a statement shortly after that it had “conducted long-range live fire drills in the waters to the north of the Taiwan Island and achieved desired effects”.
The latest show of force follows a bumper round of arms sales to Taipei by the United States — Taiwan’s main security backer — and comments from Japan’s prime minister that the use of force against Taiwan could warrant a military response from Tokyo.
China’s top diplomat Wang Yi said on Tuesday in a speech in Beijing that China would “forcefully counter” large-scale U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan, adding that any attempt to obstruct China’s unification with the island “will inevitably end in failure”.
Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te vowed Tuesday in a Facebook post that the territory would not be “escalating the conflict” or provoke disputes.
Live-fire Training
China on Tuesday morning said it had deployed destroyers, frigates, fighters, and bombers “to conduct drills on subjects of identification and verification, warning and expulsion, simulated strikes, assault on maritime targets, as well as anti-air and anti-submarine operations”.
A statement from the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command said the exercises in the waters to the north and south of the Taiwan Island “tested capabilities of sea-air coordination and integrated blockade and control”.
Announcing the drills on Monday, military spokesman Shi Yi said they were “a stern warning against ‘Taiwan Independence’ separatist forces, and… a legitimate and necessary action to safeguard China’s sovereignty and national unity”.
State broadcaster CCTV reported that a core theme of the exercises was a “blockade” of key Taiwanese ports, including Keelung in the north and Kaohsiung in the south.
Chinese authorities published a map of five large zones around Taiwan where the war games would take place. They are due to finish at 6:00 pm (1000 GMT) on Tuesday.
Taiwan said China’s designated exercise zones, some of which are within 12 nautical miles of its coast, have affected international shipping and aviation routes.
Dozens of flights to offshore Kinmen and Matsu islands were cancelled on Tuesday, according to Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration, affecting around 6,000 passengers, while more than 850 scheduled international flights will be “affected” and could face delays.
The island’s defence ministry said on Tuesday it had detected 130 Chinese military aircraft near the island in 24 hours, as well as 14 Chinese navy ships and eight unspecified government vessels in the 24 hours ending 6:00 am.
Taiwan’s coast guard said it deployed 14 ships to monitor the naval activity, “employing a one-on-one shadowing approach to forcefully deter the vessels”.
The drills by China’s ruling Communist Party are “highly provocative and reckless”, a spokesman for Taipei’s defence ministry said on Tuesday, adding they “seriously undermine regional peace and stability.
Via Agence France-Presse & ET Online Desk
