CHON BURI: The US Navy is prepared to go anywhere in the “free and open Indo-Pacific”, says a spokesman for a carrier strike group that is visiting Thailand this week.
The Nimitz Carrier Strike Group is on an 11-month patrol mission in the US 7th Fleet area of operations that began in November last year. It has just finished taking part in drills with Japan and South Korea, said Lt Ben Bushong, spokesman for the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. It has also taken part in exercises with the Philippines.
During its mission the carrier strike group had passed through disputed parts of the South China Sea without any problem because it was “a free and open Indo-Pacific”, he said.
Lt Bushong did not mention what the group’s next destinations would be after its visit to Thailand, but said it was planning to visit all areas of the Indo-Pacific.
The carrier strike group arrived in Thailand on Monday and is scheduled to stay at the Laem Chabang port until Saturday.
During the visit, its personnel have been granted shore leave in Pattaya and Chon Buri. “We like to visit Thailand,” Lt Bushong said.
The aircraft carrier is as tall as a 23-storey building and as wide as four football fields and has about 5,000 crew members.
It arrived with the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Decatur and USS Wayne E Meyer and a squadron of F/A-18 combat aircraft.
