Tag: USS Ronald Reagan

It has been five years and the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan is back conducting exercises with the ROK Navy in response to a North Korean provocation:

The USS Ronald Reagan, the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered supercarrier, will arrive at the southeastern port city of Busan later this week for joint military drills with South Korea amid mounting nuclear threats from North Korea. 

According to military sources Sunday, the Nimitz-class supercarrier will take part in combined exercises with the Republic of Korea (ROK) Navy in the East Sea this month for the first time since 2017, when Pyongyang conducted its sixth nuclear weapons test.

The move comes immediately after the two allies issued a joint statement Friday (local time), after holding a meeting in Washington to denounce the North for passing a law earlier this month to grant its military the right to use nuclear weapons preemptively. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un also called the nation’s nuclear status “irreversible,” leaving no room for negotiation on the issue.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This is a lot of people to get rolled up all at once for drug crimes:

Two sailors are already heading to court-martial for using, possessing and distributing the hallucinogenic drug, while three are waiting to see whether they will be charged as well, according to 7th Fleet spokesman Lt. Joe Keiley.

Another 10 sailors with the Japan-based ship were administratively disciplined on LSD-related charges, Keiley said.

A 15th sailor was also disciplined, but that person was not assigned to the carrier’s reactor department.

USS Ronald Reagan leaves South Korea’s southeastern port of Busan on Oct. 26, 2017. The aircraft carrier entered the port on Oct. 21 in the wake of North Korea’s sixth nuclear test. (Yonhap)

It will be interesting to see if the USS Ronald Reagan crosses the Northern Limit Line in the East Sea during this upcoming training mission:

The United States is expected to send the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), a forward-deployed aircraft carrier, to waters near the Korean Peninsula this month for a combined exercise with South Korea’s Navy, a defense official here said Sunday.

“We are in consultations (with the U.S.) on a plan for the aircraft strike group led by the nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan to operate in the East Sea around Oct. 15,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

The Reagan will likely be accompanied by several other warships belonging to the strike group, such as an Aegis destroyer, a guided-missile cruiser and a nuclear-powered submarine.

The two sides plan to conduct joint drills to detect, track and intercept the North’s ballistic missiles in addition to anti-submarine warfare training, according to the official.

A U.S Forces Korea (USFK) official said no date of the Reagan’s arrival has been fixed yet.

“It’s likely to hold the combined training around Oct. 20. The exact schedule has not been set, depending on the conditions. And then it will likely make a port call in Busan,” he said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest exercise held between the ROK and the United States to further deter North Korea:

The flight deck of the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier was bustling with sailors and planes Friday to demonstrate air flight operations to dozens of South Korean reporters who arrived on board after an hour-long flight from a U.S. air base near Seoul.

The first thing that greeted reporters was pilots in the cockpits of their Super Hornet fighter jets getting ready to take off and the flight deck crew assisting in the operations in waters some 240 kilometers from Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, and north of Jeju Island.

Before the planned demonstration, Rear Adm. Charles Williams, commander of the carrier battle group of the U.S. 7th Fleet, delivered a short briefing on the ongoing joint exercise between South Korean and U.S. navies amid ever-growing nuclear and missile threats from North Korea.

“Our operations on the Korean peninsula are part of the ongoing partnership with our Republic of Korea Navy counterparts that has been around for more than 5 decades now. The work we have done with our counterparts has proven to strengthen our alliance,” the flag officer said.

As for the meaning of the combined exercise, Lt. Commander Aaron V. Kakiel, a spokesman for Carrier Strike Group 5, which the nuclear carrier is a part of, said, “This exercise has been planned for a very long time. We’ve been working with our Korean counterparts to exercise our interoperability in this area. It is not a direct response to any (provocative) actions (by any country). It is meant to be training for us to work together for a stronger alliance.”

During the 30-minute demonstration, nine fighter jets took off and 15 fighter jets made landings. Most of the fighter jets were FA-18 Super Hornets. Others were the E-2C Hawk Eye early warning plane and the EA-18G Growler, the fleet’s electronics warfare plane.

U.S. and South Korean navy officials said the joint exercise will further improve interoperability to be fully ready to strike back against any military attacks by North Korea.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.