UK’s HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier pictured in South China Sea

Largest deployment in a generation

The British Defense Ministry says the strike group is the largest concentration of maritime and air power to leave the UK in a generation.

Ten US F-35 warplanes are deployed aboard the carrier, the byproduct of an agreement between Washington and London to harmonize and integrate the operation of their aircraft carrier fleets. A US Navy destroyer and Dutch frigate are also part of the strike group.

The group sailed from Britain in May and is expected to go as far as South Korea before heading back home in the fall.

Since 2014, China has worked to turn numerous obscure reefs and sandbars throughout the South China Sea into man-made artificial islands heavily fortified with missiles, runways and weapons systems, prompting outcry from other governments with competing claims in the waterway.

Wu Shicun, president of China’s National Institute for South China Sea Studies, described the UK carrier deployment as an attempt to “relive the glory days of the British Empire.”

“The latest voyage of British aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth is not simply what London calls a crossing of South China Sea waters in accordance with international law, but is a carefully planned trick serving multiple purposes,” read an article from Wu, posted on the PLA’s English-language website.

“It’s no secret that the UK has been acting in complicity with the US on the South China Sea issue, closely following its lead and dancing to its tune,” Wu wrote.

“The South China Sea was a symbol of Britain’s glorious colonial past, through which the old-time empire that prided itself on its worldwide colonies shipped back the fortune and treasures it plundered in Asia,” added Wu.

Austin said the UK carrier’s deployment showed the partnerships not only with Washington, but among nations from within and outside the region.

“I’m especially encouraged to see our friends building stronger security ties with one another, further reinforcing the array of partnerships that keeps aggression at bay,” he said.

A statement from the British High Commissioner in Singapore said the carrier strike group was next headed to multilateral exercises in the Philippine Sea.

US destroyer transits Taiwan Strait

As the carrier strike group was moving through the South China Sea, a US Navy surface action group was for the first time bringing together two classes of US warships in the region.

A US 7th Fleet press release said the combination of the littoral combat ship USS Tulsa and the guided-missile destroyer USS Kidd marked the first time ships of those classes have ever combined to form a surface action group.

“These types of SAG operations are exceptional opportunities to harness the combined lethality of the fleet,” Capt. Chase Sargeant, a task force commander, said in the release.

Meanwhile on Wednesday, another US guided-missile destroyer, the USS Benfold, transited the Taiwan Strait between the democratically controlled island of Taiwan and the Chinese mainland and near the northern entrance to the South China Sea.

It was the seventh such transit of the Taiwan Strait by a US warship in 2021.

China has also been flexing its military muscles around the region this week with multiple exercises, according to state-run media outlets.

“While the Chinese military drills are not likely directly related to the UK warships, they show that the PLA is at a high combat readiness,” the report said.