As China’s carrier force expands, East Asia’s seas are becoming familiar grounds for close encounters between opposing carrier strike groups.
Bound for the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility, the nuclear-powered U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) transited through the Strait of Malacca on Friday, Apr. 4, 2025. The carrier has been ordered to the Middle East to reinforce the USS Harry S. Truman, which is currently engaged in combat operations against Houthi forces in Yemen.
The Vinson has spent the last several months operating around East Asia, and last month experienced close encounters with Russian maritime patrol aircraft. It is expected that its place in the U.S. Seventh Fleet will be assumed by the USS Nimitz (CVN 68) once it arrives in the area.
Round-the-clock strikes against the Houthis are being launched from 🇺🇸USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea.
Additional strikes on Yemen by USAF B-2 bombers operating from Diego Garcia.
USS Carl Vinson CSG on its way to the Middle East region from the Pacific. pic.twitter.com/zx2jB8L6xE
— Navy Lookout (@NavyLookout) April 5, 2025
Meanwhile, to the northeast, the Chinese Type 002 carrier Shandong and its escorts conducted extensive operations in the South China and Philippine Seas around Taiwan. The ships were monitored by Japanese military forces, who reported that the carrier had conducted dozens of sorties with fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft.
JSDF 🇯🇵 released that the PLA-N Shangdong and accompanied Southern Fleet vessels 🇨🇳 had conducted takeoff/landing operations in the Pacific and withdrawn to the South China Sea today: https://t.co/kj4IqQ33xG (JPN only).
[Vessels]
■Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier Shandong… https://t.co/vrzcwc5GJB pic.twitter.com/ckSX0rILhz
— Song’s Defence Watch🇦🇺🇯🇵 (@songs349) April 3, 2025
The Chinese carrier group, along with other Chinese forces, took part in a large-scale exercise simulating combat operations in waters near Taiwan. This would be the latest exercise of many undertaken by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that puts pressure on Taiwan, otherwise known as the Republic of China, which the PRC sees as an illegitimate breakaway territory.
Fears of an invasion of Taiwan by PRC forces have been worsened by these ever more frequent drills, along with the preparation of new military equipment specifically designed for a large amphibious assault of a scale that has been compared to the Second World War’s D-Day.
#video The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command on Wednesday deployed the Shandong aircraft carrier task group to simulate strikes on ground and maritime targets in areas to the east of Taiwan Island. #Taiwan pic.twitter.com/1UdDEV10T9
— China News 中国新闻网 (@Echinanews) April 2, 2025
Last week, Chinese warships encircled Taiwan & carried out Strait Thunder-2025A — the PLA’s first major military exercise of the year.
The rehearsals featured a blockade on key areas, long-range live-fire missile drills, & carrier ops to the east.
New @iejmedia map & report: pic.twitter.com/1e4mO43u8w
— Ian Ellis (@ianellisjones) April 6, 2025
Shandong is the newest and most advanced carrier in active service with the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), pending the official commissioning of the Type 003 Fuijan. A development of the Type 001 Liaoning, which was built in the Soviet Union as a Kuznetsov class carrier, the Shandong was domestically constructed according to a modified design.
The under-flight deck missile silos that featured on the original Kuznetsov design were deleted, adding extra hangar space to allow for a larger air wing, and the ski-jump ramp was adjusted with a slightly shallower incline to better suit China’s Shenyang J-15 fighter.
With the Fuijan, expected to enter full service within the next few years, China will shift from short take-off but arrested recovery (STOBAR) to full catapult assisted take-off but arrested recovery (CATOBAR) flight operations. The Type 003 remains conventionally powered, with the step to nuclear propulsion planned for the future Type 004 class.
Carrier Encounters
While during all of these operations, many hundreds, if not thousands, of miles separated the aircraft carrier groups, the area of influence of a carrier group also easily stretches across similar distances. Conducting extensive flight operations can require the use of significant amounts of airspace, sometimes hundreds of miles from the carrier itself, to allow for safe aircraft separation. This means even operating two carrier groups simultaneously in the same sea without close cooperation raises the possibility of conflict.
The Carl Vinson and the Shandong have come close to meeting on a number of occasions over the years since the latter’s activation.
Shandong aircraft carrier spotted northwest of the Spratly Islands on September 11 while USS Carl Vinson’s in the southwestern part of South China Sea.
Looks like the Chinese carrier sailed southward to avoid tropical storm Conson. It returned to Sanya yesterday. pic.twitter.com/jz8bE1BPq0
— Duan Dang (@duandang) September 14, 2021
The Philippine Sea is also crowded with the presence of three aircraft carriers: USS Ronald Reagan and USS Carl Vinson, and China’s Shandong. pic.twitter.com/dW5YBQQDpV
— Duan Dang (@duandang) November 3, 2023
Aircraft carriers of other nations are also no strangers to East Asian waters, with the French nuclear-powered carrier Charles de Gaulle in fact having recently joined the USS Carl Vinson as well as the Japanese light carrier JS Kaga (DDH-184) in the Philippine Sea.
Charles de Gaulle is currently taking part in the Clemenceau 25 deployment, which has also seen it operate alongside allied forces in the Middle East and Indian Ocean.
Later in 2025, as the French deployment draws to a close, it is expected that the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales (R09) will depart Europe and eventually sail through the South China Sea enroute to Japan during the CSG 25 deployment. This will in many ways replicate the CSG 21 deployment undertaken by sister ship HMS Queen Elizabeth (R08), which itself operated in relatively close proximity to Shandong.
The Prince of Wales is expected to carry a complement of up to 24 F-35B Lightning IIs, although its AW101 Merlin helicopter based ‘Crowsnest’ airborne early warning offers a shorter range compared to the E-2 Hawkeyes of U.S. and French carriers, potentially lessening opportunities to monitor Chinese naval activity.
At some point during the CSG 25 deployment it is almost certain the carrier group will meet with a U.S. carrier group – either the Nimitz CSG, or the Japan-based George H. W. Bush CSG – for a similar photo exercise (PHOTEX) as the one with the Vinson and Charles de Gaulle. As before, this will likely draw the attention of Chinese press and lead to similar shows of force from Chinese naval forces.
