The United States last week sent state-of-the-art fighter jets to strategic air bases in three Southeast Asian countries around the South China Sea, demonstrating American air power in the disputed region.
The U.S. Air Force’s stealth F-22 Raptors visited Indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines from August 6 to 10, following the conclusion of the Pitch Black air combat exercise in Australia on August 2. They also made a stop for dynamic force deployment operations on their way back to Kadena Air Base in Japan.
The F-22’s tour came at a time when tensions in the region remain high due to maritime disputes between China and the Philippines, a U.S. security ally in the region. Aircraft and ships from both sides have come close to encountering each other on several occasions while the U.S. conducted exercises to demonstrate its support for Manila.
The F-22 is a fifth-generation fighter jet capable of air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. It features sophisticated sensors that allow the pilot to engage aerial threats before they are detected. The Air Force has stated that the Raptor “cannot be matched by any known or planned fighter aircraft.”
Staff Sergeant Edward Coddington/US Air Force
The Raptors that toured the U.S. allies in the South China Sea are assigned to Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia. In April, they were deployed to Kadena Air Base on the Japanese island of Okinawa to “maintain a stable combat aircraft presence in the Indo-Pacific region,” the base said.
The dynamic use of forces is an operational concept of the USA in global competition with China and Russia. It envisages that the military becomes operationally more unpredictable for opponents and can be used proactively and quickly to deter attackers and reassure allies.
US Air Force/Senior Airman Mitchell Corley
On August 6, four F-22s landed at I Gusti Ngurah Rai Air Base in Indonesia. It was the first time that US fifth-generation aircraft had landed in the island nation. They conducted a rapid “hot pit” refueling, a procedure in which an aircraft is refueled with its engines running.
Meanwhile, four F-22s have arrived at Rimba Air Base in Brunei. The three-day performance and flight demonstration ended on August 8. They are the second type of American fifth-generation fighter jet to land there, following the arrival of the F-35 Lightning II in March.
For their final stopover in the South China Sea, six F-22s visited the Philippines from August 8 to 9, landing at Basa and Mactan-Benito Ebuen Air Bases, where two of them conducted bilateral integration exercises with the Philippine Air Force.
US Air Force/Staff Sergeant Edward Coddington
For many countries in the region, the strategic competition between the United States and China is the bigger problem, says Evan A. Laksmana, senior fellow for military modernization in Southeast Asia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies and editor of the Regional Security Assessment for the Asia-Pacific Region.
For some Southeast Asian states, it remains essential to integrate the United States into the regional security architecture to counterbalance China’s coercive behavior, he said. NewsweekOthers expressed concern that the “price of presence” would entail a broader strategic orientation toward China.
“The complexity and frequency of exercises and operations involving the United States and Southeast Asian states has increased in recent years in order to keep the United States involved while at the same time being careful not to unnecessarily encourage escalation with China,” Laksmana said of the use of the F-22 in the region.
To deter and perhaps win a regional attack on China, the United States will increasingly need the ability to cooperate and operate with some partners and allies in Southeast Asia, he added, “even if some of them can only provide passive access.”
