A United States Navy helicopter from the US Seventh Fleet has reported spotting Monday two Chinese Navy vessels near the Scarborough Shoal, also called Bajo de Masinloc, between Macclesfield Bank and Luzon.
Photos taken on May 5 and released by the US Navy indicate the Chinese Navy vessels were the guided missile destroyer Lanzhou (170) and guided missile frigate Hengshui (572).
Cmdr. William J. Marks, US 7th Fleet public affairs officer, said the USS Blue Ridge-embarked MH-60 helicopter “is part of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 12… building relationships and furthering interoperability with allies and partners in the Indo-Asia-Pacific.”
Marks said the Blue Ridge, lead ship of two Blue Ridge-class command ships of the US Navy and the command vessel of the Seventh Fleet, was near Scarborough as part of “routine training and operations” in the South China Sea when the Chinese vessels were spotted.
Its primary role is to provide command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence (C4I) support to the commander and staff of the giant US Seventh Fleet, which used to have a dry dock and repair facility in Subic Bay.
Seventh Fleet presence
“It’s not uncommon for Seventh Fleet to have ships and aircraft operating simultaneously in the Yellow Sea, East Sea, and South China Sea. The Blue Ridge flight operations in the photos are part of our routine presence in international waters, with the goal of providing security and stability for all maritime nations,” Marks said.
The presence of the 7th Fleet flagship in the area coincided with the opening of the Balikatan Exercises 2014.
USS Blue Ridge is not part of the exercise, which involves 5,500 Filipino and American forces who will be conducting simultaneous drills and humanitarian activities in different areas in Luzon and the Visayas.
Last Friday, Philippine and US Marines staged mock beachfront assaults in San Antonio, Zambales to hone the combat skills and interoperability of the two allies’ militaries.
San Antonio, site of the Naval Education and Training Command, is 220 kilometers from Scarborough. The shoal lies within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) but was taken over by China following a standoff in 2012.
The exercise, now on its 30th iteration, is taking place amid simmering tensions over territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
But Philippine and US officials stressed the Balikatan activities were not directed at any particular country.
“Our soldiers are here for the sake of training,” they said.
US Marines spokesman Capt. Jeremy Scheier said “there was no specific scenario” in Friday’s mock amphibious raid that began well before dawn and involved about 40 US and 80 Filipino troops.
Assault training
Meanwhile, at around 8:30 a.m. today, Filipino Marines, with their American counterparts aboard Philippine Navy vessel BRP Dagupan City (LC 551), will “assault hostile enemy beach at Ternate, Cavite,” south of Manila.
Col. Edgard A. Arevalo, commander, Philippine Navy (PN)-Civil Military Operations Group (CMOG) and concurrent PN spokesman, said this phase is intended to defeat the “enemy” while attaining the highest state of inter-operability through sharing of technique, tactics, and procedures that American and Filipino sailors and marines practice in their respective armed forces.
The “landing force” is composed of Philippine Marine Corps Special Operations Platoon, PMC Force Reconnaissance, and USMC Reconnaissance elements on board three of PMC’s newly acquired small unit riverine craft.
Philippine vessel BRP Dagupan City (LC 551) will provide the platform while BRP Abraham Campo (PG 396) acts as support vessel.
Philippine Navy Capt.Virme Torralba is the commander of the Amphibious Task Force.
“The capability to conduct amphibious operation – that of being able to launch a seaborne force from the ship to the shore – is a competency unique to the Philippine Marine Corps as a type command under the Philippine Navy,” said Arevalo.
“This competency of the Philippine Marine Corps is the umbilical cord, so to speak, that binds it with Philippine Fleet that provides the platforms or the ships from where the Marines are landed to some hostile beaches to engage the enemies entrenched inland,” he added.