US military conducted 100+ drills near China in 2021 to practise new war concepts: Report

Chinese Communist Party's flagship newspaper Global Times said that the United States held over 100 large scale military exercises near China last year in an attempt to practise and validate several new war concepts targetting the country. 

Citing South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI) report, Global Times claimed that the major reason behind US' extensive drills with new strategies was that it wanted to contain China but is "faced with the rapid development of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA)." 

According to publically available data, the US conducted 95 military exercises in and near the South China sea in 2021 but the actual number is over 100, the report claimed.

Out of the 95 drills, 14 solely consisted of arms of the US military, the other 81 were joint exercises with other nations including Japan, India, the UK, Australia, France and Canada.

US sent 4 CSGs, 2 amphibious ready groups, 11 nuclear-powered attack submarines: Report

Last year, the US military successively sent strategic platforms including four carrier strike groups (Theodore Roosevelt CSG, Nimitz CSG, Carl Vinson CSG and Ronald Reagan CSG), two amphibious ready groups (Makin Island ARG and Essex ARG) and 11 nuclear-powered attack submarines, including USS Connecticut and USS Chicago, and carried out 22 bombers sorties, the SCSPI said.

Apart from this, Washington also conducted at least 1,200 aerial close-in reconnaissance sorties with large spy jets and 419 ship days of maritime surveys to the South China Sea. 

Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert, told Global Times that the US is developing new war concepts because it knows all its established military bases, including in South Korea and Japan, are no longer secure and it needs more bases. 

"The US military is worried and panicked to see the growing combat capabilities of the PLA as the gap between them narrows quickly, so the US is looking not only at developing a new generation of weapons and equipment but also creating new tactics and ways to engage in combat," Zhongping added

The report, citing US documents on the Indo-Pacific Strategy, claimed that the US is trying to validate some of its war concepts as it acknowledges that Beijing has an edge in the air and sea within the first island.

New technologies, including standoff hypersonic weapons, precision strike and missile defence systems, new maritime combat systems, directed energy weapons, antiballistic missile technologies, next-generation nuclear-powered attack submarines and destroyers are all under development by the US, the SCSPI said.

Image: AP