US ramps up tensions with China

Washington, Jul 16 (Prensa Latina) The United States escalated tensions with China by sending more than two dozen F-22 stealth fighters to the Pacific, a record number for the region, CNN reported on Friday.

July 16, 2021
18:10

The Pacific Air Forces in Hawaii said this week that approximately 25 F-22s Raptors from the Hawaii Air National Guard and from the Elmendorf-Richardson Joint Base, in Alaska, will be deployed this month in Guam and Tinian islands for Operation Pacific Iron 2021.

CNN added that the US Air Force has around 180 F-22s in its fleet, although only about half are ready for missions at any time, due to maintenance requirements, according to Air Force statistics. Therefore, the US will be sending about 25 percent of F-22s to the Pacific Iron exercise.

‘We have never had this many Raptors deployed together in the Pacific Air Forces area of operations,’ General Ken Wilsbach, the Pacific Air Forces commander, told CNN.

In recent days, CNN noted, tensions between the two world powers ramped up after China removed a US warship from their territorial waters close to the Paracelsus Islands in the South China Sea.

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