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Rosie Brown / Yankee-Brown Productions
A U.S. Navy landing craft arrives at Thailand's Hat Yao beach during Cobra Gold 2013, a military exercise involving 13,000 military personnel.
HAT YAO, Thailand -- An ear-thumping explosion reverberates around the bay as a plume of water shoots hundreds of yards into the air.
Two Marine F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets scream by overhead, while Huey and Super Cobra helicopters bank hard, simulating bombing runs. Heavily armed, amphibious assault vehicles churn up the sand as they unleash hordes of U.S. Marines onto one of Thailand's idyllic eastern beaches.
Cobra Gold 2013 -- the largest multinational military exercise in the Asia-Pacific region -- is officially under way.
Rosie Brown / Yankee-Brown Productions
A Thai marine waits patiently for instructions in the midday sun during Cobra Gold 2013.
The annual exercise is in its 32nd iteration and involves 13,000 military personnel countries, including Japan and South Korea, as well as observers from China and, for the first time, Myanmar.
For 10 days, these forces will conduct a variety of field exercises, from amphibious assaults and jungle warfare to humanitarian and civic assistance projects.
Leading the exercises are more than 1,000 Marines and sailors from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, part of Amphibious Force 7th Fleet.
Many of these servicemen and women will play a major role in America's new "Asia pivot" defense strategy, which calls for the strengthening of U.S. military power in the region.
"The pivot to the Pacific that President Obama has talked about is a refocusing of assets and efforts after over 10 years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq," said Capt. Cathal O'Connor, commander of Amphibious Squadron 11. "But the actual relationship of being out here in the Pacific goes back to the time of the Civil War."
Cobra Gold itself is a holdover from the Cold War when it was one of the key pillars of U.S. regional security.
'A deterrent'
During the height of the Cold War, the exercise regularly simulated invasions of Thailand from its northern and eastern borders.
Now with U.S. once again focused on the Pacific, Cobra Gold has taken on renewed significance, explained Jon Grevatt, an Asia-Pacific analyst for IHS Jane's.
"It has new purpose to show the strength of military collaboration between the U.S. and its partner nations, creating a deterrent to Chinese and North Korean ambitions," he said.
Tensions have been rising in the region with the dispute between China and Japan over the Senkaku Islands – known as Diaoyu in Chinese -- and North Korea's latest nuclear test.
Rosie Brown / Yankee-Brown Productions
Plumes of smoke rise from simulated bombing runs over Hat Yao beach in Thailand.
This strengthening has already begun with the Navy sending a newly upgraded, guided-missile cruiser, USS Antietam, to join the 7th Fleet based in Japan. The Antietam gives the Navy a more sophisticated air-defense system, particularly against ballistic missiles.
More ships will be arriving in the region in the near future as the Pentagon continues its plan to shift around 60 percent of all Navy warships to the Asia-Pacific theater by 2020.
And it's not just the Navy getting in on the action, the Marines have deployed two battalions -- nearly 2,000 troops -- to Okinawa in the last six weeks with more scheduled to arrive this summer. There are now more than 17,000 U.S. Marines based in Japan -- the most in over a decade.
Both Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta have visited Southeast Asia in recent months, reinforcing how critical the Asia-Pacific theater has become to U.S. strategy.
"We all know that the Asia-Pacific is the traffic highway of so many goods and services. A great many things are manufactured in this part of the world," said Rear Adm. Jeffrey A. Harley, commander of Amphibious Force 7th Fleet. "The United States has been a presence in the Pacific for many, many years… and they will continue to be so."
Sheila A. Smith, an expert on regional security in Asia for the Council on Foreign Relations, said that despite the fact China had accepted an invitation to observe Cobra Gold "military exercises always raise eyebrows."
“The president is a Pacific president," she said. "I think he realizes that the region has been overlooked. It’s not threat-based or military-driven. The large part is an adjustment of diplomatic focus."
Rosie Brown / Yankee-Brown Productions
US Marines assault Hat Yao beach during an exercise as part of Cobra Gold 2013.
Matt Stumpf, an expert on U.S.-Asian relations at the Asia Society think tank, added: "I think what’s notable about this year’s exercise is in the context of the rebalancing of U.S. policy toward Asia.
"The president and [former Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton have both spoken in depth on their views that Asia is critical to the United States in the 21st century. And with the drawdown in Afghanistan and the end of the war in Iraq, there was an opportunity in Asia to refocus diplomatic, defense and development tools for U.S. goals in the region."
NBC News Staff Writer John Newland contributed to this report.
Related:
North Korea crisis: China talks softly to avoid alienating nuclear-armed neighbor
Much at stake for US as tensions rise in troubled China seas
Leave a Comment:
Para Bellum. I hope the idiot in North Korea grows a brain and backs down before the SHTF.
These megalomaniac dictatorships, Islamic Sunni rulers and to a lesser extent Iran's Shiite rulers don't have brains!
They can do most unpredictable.
nittyahoo typifies megalomaniac ruler without an ounce of brain.
Henrich von Dorf: Nitanyahu and his gang are too stupid, arrogant and or on the payroll of oil rich Sunni rulers led by House of Saud and their Sunni Islamic hater and killer pals.
If China detonates a 16.5 megaton EMP (electromagnetic pulse) warhead over Japan, there will be a lot of sitting ducks.
Normally, China's DF-5 ICBM carries a five megaton thermonuclear warhead. According to the Federation of American Scientists, an enhanced radiation weapon (such as an EMP warhead) has a multiplicative factor of 3.3 when a normal nuclear warhead is specifically tuned to emit gamma rays.
And in that situation, you don't think we would respond?
China would lose in an Nuclear Exchange.
Only if it was obvious that it was China. More likely, they'd use a proxy like North Korea, or someone less obvious like an African or Middle Eastern patsy... Then feign alarm that someone would do such a thing.
I'm sorry, but are the world's daddy? Why are we defending countries that are doing better economically than we are? Maybe it's time Obama help the American people and not corporations and foreign countries.
Maybe we should put our troops on the Mexican border since illegal immigrants kill thousands of Americans each year through crime,, D.U.I's, etc.
jw101, we have been the world's daddy since the end of WWII. I agree that it needs to stop, but did you have the same issue with the previous President and Presidents before him, or just the current administration?
Martin
You talk stupidly. There's not gonna be a nuke by China. You're fomenting more talk of war.
"The annual exercise is in its 32nd iteration and involves 13,000 military personnel countries, including Japan and South Korea, as well as observers from China and, for the first time, Myanmar."
Not bad.
We need to keep away from ME Muslim nations, Afghanistan and Pakistan for a few years.
If we keep away from them, many Muslims will be killing each other well as in Syria, Pakistan and other places.
Better yet bring the troops home, all of them. Yes we need, and deserve a strong defensive military force, with the best equipment possible. But we don't need to be the worlds cops. Let these multi-national companies hire their own security forces, not use our military forces to protect their assets.
There is no way to educate some people about the requirements of a defense posture in the modern world. We lost thousands of soldiers in Viet Nam because we didn't understand how to fight a war in that environment. We lost an ambassador in Lybia because we didn't have a military presence in the area. We have to be present in the potential hotspots and we have to train for whatever contingency we can imagine. If we weren't in Europe, the USSR would not have failed in it's expansionist policies in the 50's. If you don't want the world trade business to be closed down by local actors then you have to support our military presence and training in critical places before they become hot-spots.
Isolationism is a failed policy from the 19th century.
WE don't have to be anywhere!!!!!! Hotspots in 3rd World Nations absolutely have no effect on the bottom line of main street America, and not even most top %5ers of America. The Libyan amb getting killed could have been a setup to make Obama look soft and to get the folks back home to support more military BS across the globe. Now we are banging the wardrums in Mali and Algeria, supporting crazies, like in Syria. If the leader of said nation isn't in Uncle Sam's back pocket we liberate them and bring them our riggged brand of democracy. Democracy is a joke!
Over 700 bases in just about every nation on the planet. Why did we have to go into Somalia? The mission ended up being a protracted failure. Do you really think Libya is any better off now economically? The cost of living there skyrocketed once Qaddafi went down. Now the Euro multinationals and high finance can pick that country clean, which is what the whole thing was about in the first place. Tyranny under the guise of good intentions. EVer wonder why we as a nation have spent well over a trillion dollars and all these 3rd World hellholes are still hellholes? The foreign aid is mostly bribe money. The IMF and World Bank impose such a high interest rate on these poor nations that take out loans that they can't pay them back, and as a result have to sell off their natural resources and manufacturing bases to Western mulitnationals at friesale prices. Talk about a scam. And what do we get out of it? More good paying manufacturing jobs going overseas. ANd the rubes of America for the most part go along with it!!! What a nation of dumb@!$%#s. Only the uber rich make out with this arrangement.
Democracy and the One world government are the revelations discription of Satans Army. Next comes the Central Bank, the one world Currency, the money made of plastic, the rain of fire, the death of all land born food sources, the marking of the beast on every person that wants to eat or use the plastic money, the depletion of the oceans food sources down to the plankton, the war between good and evil that when a million people per day start dieing then, the omnipotent intervention, the removal of the holy spirit and the souls of the dead. Finally and like a thief in the night, our Judgement, everyones'. Keep up the great work. Every single thing happening is being played out exactly how it was written and there's no denying it unless one hasn't read it.
Better get this exercise complete before sequestration.
DRAGON has to come off as the adult in the room. We accomplished nothing in Vietnam but getting many of our sons and daughters killed and Vietnam is doing just fine without us. By the way DRAGON do you care about the 2 million plus casualties that the Vietnamese experienced during the war? Of course, its just a big game of Risk played on a board in your mommies basement. What a pu$$y!
the U.S. Govt. in closed quarters says, we need to build up a reason in our citizens minds that we have an enemy which must be destroyed in order too protect them!
That sounds exactly what Ronald Hussian Reagan would have said. Most likely GW Bush/Cheney crime family did say.
Sally, your response was regurgitated diatribe. Grow some neurons between your ears and think for yourself...once in your life.
Brainwashed fool.
The Terrorist in Chief is arming the Muslim Brotherhood telling us it will stabilize a country that is becoming more and more radical in its Islamic beliefs. Coptic Christians are literally being crucified, burned, murdered, beaten by muslims, and Uncle Achmad in the WH tells us that we are clinging to our God (Jesus) and (Guns). We must be awful. This worthless Muslim in the WH didn't say a word about the Christians hundreds of them that were recently burned alive in Nigeria. How about Pastors that are being jailed in Iran for forming home groups? Not a peep, but we heard about a video that no one ever saw for almost a month when it was evident from the get go that it wasn't the cause behind Benghazi. There is a war against Christians and our so called President is leading the charge.
This article is about a military exercise in Asia. No mention of Muslims, Iran, Coptic Christians, or the war on Christians.
I like turtles.
Bill Collins, you are at total fool. Pull that BS out of your a$$ all at once did you? I guess you Sir, are ready for some Preparation H. Be generous when applying it now!
To show the Chinese that we want to continue dominating their region like we have for centuries their and in South America since we want everyone shere of influence now for ourselves... that's what world super power means and the humanitarian stuff well it obviously has military goals in mind first and foremost just like Myanmar always maintained.
Great and we are cutting our nuclear arsenal, unilaterally at the same time! stupidity in the White House is palatable! We need to maintain, and add and target both NK, Iran and China, China must know hat if NK uses nucs, China will be held responsible too. They are the only ones to control NK.
You don't know much about the relationship between China & North Korea. Your post is pure political brainwashing. Saying China should be held responsible for anything North Korea does is about as relevant as saying you should be held responsible for hurricane Katrina.
buffalo, you have dingle berries for brains.
F both of you, neither do either one of you, but China has to know if NK strikes NO ON E will be spared, let them figure it out!!! they are sooo f ing smart, unlike the both of you. go get some Chinese food, and chuckster, wipe your own ass. China supports NK, we fought one war with the bastards already. You have to be blind to think otherwise.
With the Federal Deficit where it is at why do the do this type of training?
I say cut the training and save money. No country is going to attack the US on water.
Waste of Federal Spending. Cut the military by 50%.
If you honestly think the only purpose of a Navy is to protect our shoreline then you have no business even commenting on this story.
Normally I say "try reading" but that comment was so blindingly ignorant I don't think it would help you...
Aldo1887, look at his name, he definitely crushed education. Makes sense now doesn't it?
so the cargo ships heading out of japan and s korea, laden with cars, electronics, machinery for sale to USA and other customers will pass the US taxpayer US navy ships heading towards Asia to spend trillions defending our bankers.
Why aren't we charging these freeloaders for our military protection? after all, china and n korea are a bigger threat to them than they are to USA.
What's wrong with this picture?
RSO&I should be getting ready to kick off in South Korea as well. Expect to hear the cursory saber rattling from the DPRK in the weeks to come.
Wonderful, ... now we are showing China how to invade Taiwan (the Republic of China).
I hope we are getting paid for our services.
We have a defense strategy???????? Who'd a thunk?? I thought we just strolled willy-nilly from one international debacle to another.
This has been happening for a long time and is valuable for the Marines and military from other nations to learn to work together to accomplish a common goal. Some of the comments on here go to show what a couch quarterback brings to the game.
I guess the U.S. is provoking Asia which has more people and thus will need more Drones and more hardware to conquer than the middle east. It's all about blowing things up instead of building infrastructure. Let 'em alone. Bomb the rubble after they've had it, if that's their choice.
Let's bring all our troops back to the US and let other countries take care of themselves for a change.
Where will they work? What will they do? Will you offer them about 500,000 jobs once they become reservists? They have jobs at the moment and they are not pretty, hunky dory little pansy jobs like we live out on a daily basis here. If they have no focal point then their focus would have to be directed at us. What would you do then? Cry foul? we have to pay them to do what they do or there will be over 500,000 trained killers that used to protect us jobless, suffering from that depression and focusing their attention on people like you that caused them to lose the jobs that they once had. So be very careful what you wish for. In no way am I saying they should be administering democracy because thats the worst possible thing. I am saying that the worlds weak and powerless need our help and that is the job that we pay them to do because we have that much compassion. It's not those soldiers that have changed the rules to greed and resources take overs nor is it their interest and most of them don't even know that because it's above their pay scale.
Wow, such differing viewpoints. As a China resident (US Citizen), I can assure you the Chinese people abhor NK and all their attention grabbing rhetoric. In addition, the Chinese government is between a rock and a hard place. They cut everything off to NK, and NK becomes an Asian version of Syria, and you have a certified nut job with his finger on the trigger of who knows what actual capability in their backyard, not to mention all of SE Asia, Japan, The Philippines, etc. No easy answer, except maybe the tactful demise of the fat boy. The only problem with that is, He's probably actually the puppet their military wackos allow to stand in front and be the "mouth"(aka Target).
Some Americans critical of US presence in the Pacific should read:
1) Alfred Thayer Mayan's The Influence of Sea Power Upon History
2) Sun Tzu's The Art of War
3) Raoul Castex's Théories Stratégiques
4) Halford John Mackinder's The Geographical Pivot of History
Then get back to me.
i never knew china was allowed to observe these exercises. it is nothing short of telling the enemy " this is what we are going to do to you." isn't the attempt to be transparent seem a little too much? whoever makes the decision on who watches and observes u.s. military exercises should be fired for divulging secrets.
Mr Kiernan are you kidding me? If this exercise has been going on for 32 years how is this a shift in US Policy? This article just highlights the fact that the US never lost focus on Asia.
Military exercises in the Asia Pacific region is a waste of American taxpayers money. If war broke out, a major conventional war in Asia would be short lived in duration and would not produce any fruitful results. Asian nations and the people in the region know what they want and have realistic expectations of what is achievable. They are ready to fight for their own destiny.
Cobra Gold 2013 is an annual Thai-U.S. co-sponsored joint and multinational exercise. This 32nd exercise enables the players to coordinate their up-graded weapons systems. Thailand has added the JAS 39 Gripen and S340 AEW aircraft to the mix...
Pak-China YOUYI (Friendship) Joint Military exercises between China and Pakistan has been conducted for almost a DECADE...
The Iranian, Russian, Chinese and Syrian armies stage Joint Military amphibious exercises along the Syrian border, during 2012...
Fun is when a uninvited guest shows-up INSIDE of your defenses, during the exercise. Oct 2006 when a Song Class Missile sub surfaced within spitting distance of a US Aircraft Carrier. None of the carrier's roughly dozen escorting warships detected the Song until it breached the surface...
The lone Chinese vessel slipped past at least a dozen other American warships which were supposed to protect the carrier from hostile aircraft or submarines...
And the rest of the costly defensive screen, which usually includes at least two U.S. submarines, was also apparently unable to detect it...
Reference - .dailymail.co.uk/news/article-492804/The-uninvited-guest-Chinese-sub-pops-middle-U-S-Navy-exercise-leaving-military-chiefs-red-faced.html
Why in the “bleep” do we have Chinese observers on these exercises? I hope it’s for propaganda purposes or to mislead them!
I participated in these war games from '74 thru 84'. Time has come to stop playing games. Pyongyang, Tehran...Sorry for the collateral damage but the leadership must go.