Terse Messages

The United States is rush deploying some ships for training Westwards.

USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70), refueled and overhauled in 2005:


USS Bunker Hill (CG-52), upgraded in 2006:


USS Gridley (DDG-101), commissioned in 2007:


USS Stockdale (DDG-106), comissioned in 2009:


And they're probably picking up some new members in Pearl Harbor. This is going to be literally ship-for-ship the most modern, most powerful surface combatant group in the world.

The most logical explanation is that it's headed to North Korea's vicinity. You know, where Yokosuka's George Washington Group is already conducting exercises in the Yellow Sea.

But they're not signaling North Korea. Nope. This is a message to China: Get the North in line or we will raise such a shitstorm in your backyard that it's going to spill onto your front porch.

Speaking of China, wonder what they're up to?