US strategy cause of its aircraft carrier shortfall

The Japan-based USS Ronald Reagan is to make a rare deployment to the Middle East in order to cover the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.

This will be the first time that the US aircraft carrier has left the Asia-Pacific since 2015, and during its four-month deployment to relieve the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and its strike group in the North Arabian Sea, the US navy will no longer have any aircraft carrier in the Asia-Pacific, which, according to some US media, is contrary to US President Joe Biden's military strategy which prioritizes the region.

The Eisenhower－on its second deployment within a year－is mechanically unable to extend past its planned deployment length and will need to leave the Middle East in July for repairs. The USS Ronald Reagan is the only one available until the USS Carl Vinson finishes its maintenance this summer.

It was during Donald Trump's presidency that the US started to refer to the "Asia-Pacific" as the "Indo-Pacific" so as to further stress the importance of the region. Biden has followed suit. That's why the US has always kept an aircraft carrier strike group in the region since May 2019; However, the US faces a shortage of aircraft carriers.

Actually, in order to increase its military presence in the West Pacific without reducing it in the Middle East, the deployments of the US aircraft carriers operating overseas reached a record 875 days in 2020.

Ever since former US president Barack Obama's "pivot to Asia" policy, the United States has always been attempting to invest more military forces into the West Pacific to "balance" the Chinese navy and "contain" Russia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

As many analysts point out, unless the US gives up its strategy of global dominance, its military resources will not meet the demand.

Given the fact that the US has the world's largest and strongest military might, it is impossible for any other country to challenge its military dominance, and there is no need for China, the world's second-largest economy, to do so as it only seeks a peaceful rise.

The Chinese leaders have reiterated time and again that the country will maintain a peaceful development path without ever posing any threat to any country. Rather, the expansion of its economic strength and military might will only help to secure global peace.

Seeking to flex its muscles anywhere it thinks it should, the US will only overstretch its military.