Pentagon denies aircraft carrier being deployed to Korean Peninsula (of course)

CNN ^ | 06/03/2010 | Barbara Starr

[magslinger]

Nice ‘chop!

[magslinger]

The Sea of Japan would be a much better choice than the Yellow Sea. More sea room, not quite so close to grumpy neighbors and you can get better coverage of all of NK.

[FreedomPoster]

Not keen on the choke points, hence my “south of Japan” comment.

North Korea has a lot of mobile mines, which is one way to look at diesel electric boats. They only have to get lucky once.

http://hazegray.org/worldnav/asiapac/n_korea.htm#1

[lentulusgracchus]

[Art.] The Pentagon denied Thursday it has approved sending the aircraft carrier USS George Washington to the Yellow Sea off the Korean Peninsula.....

....because a second secretary at the Chinese embassy called up DoD and countermanded.

[lentulusgracchus]

No need to be closer than the south coast of Japan, say.

In that case, don't deply a carrier at all, but just cover from Kadena and Atsugi.

Unsinkable aircraft carriers and all that.

[magslinger]

Choke points that you own aren't really that bad. It might have been an issue seventy years ago... The strait between Hokkaido and Sakhalin Island is a little tight. Having land based air cover you can pull back under is never a bad thing. JMSDF and JASDF might have slightly dated aircraft but their pilots were pretty good and their ASW capability was top notch from what I heard thirty years ago. That may have changed since, but not that I have heard.

[magslinger]

Excellent point I didn’t think of until one second after hitting “post”.

[magslinger]

Also:
http://www.hazegray.org/worldnav/asiapac/japan.htm