US allies in Asia wary as Trump moves military assets for Iran war

Al Jazeera | Erin Hale

The United States military has redeployed its last aircraft carrier in Asia, the USS George Washington, from Japan to the Middle East to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln amid the ongoing war with Iran. This movement, alongside the prior relocation of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) components from South Korea, has raised significant concerns among regional allies regarding American power projection against China.

Beijing has subsequently intensified naval operations beyond the First Island Chain, deploying the Liaoning and Shandong aircraft carriers into the Western Pacific while expanding coastguard patrols near Taiwan, Japan, and the Philippines. In response to Washington’s 2026 National Defense Strategy demanding higher burden-sharing, regional partners hosting 375,000 assigned US personnel are accelerating independent security investments. Taiwan announced an 18 percent defense spending increase for 2027, while Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. advocated raising national defense expenditure to 4 percent of gross domestic product to offset reduced American operational flexibility.

Comment

The temporary absence of a homeported carrier strike group at Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka creates a persistent structural gap in carrier-based fleet air defence across the Philippine Sea. Without organic naval aviation operating from forward-deployed carriers, American surface combatants in the Western Pacific must rely on land-based air refuelling and combat air patrols operating out of Kadena Air Base. This geographic constraint reduces the effective operational radius and loiter time required to counter dual-carrier surge operations by the People's Liberation Army Navy's Liaoning and Shandong.

The resulting dependency on land-based aviation exposes US Seventh Fleet operations to single-point vulnerabilities at fixed airfield infrastructure in Okinawa and Guam. Precision strike options against land facilities alter the attrition balance during high-intensity maritime interdiction scenarios before carrier assets can re-enter the theater. Consequently, missile defence batteries protecting Anderson Air Force Base face increased saturation risks when naval air control along the First Island Chain is temporarily vacated.

Strategic Question for Discussion

If land-based air support from Kadena Air Base becomes the primary cover for US Seventh Fleet surface ships during carrier redeployments, which operational friction — tanker availability or airfield missile vulnerability — poses the greater limit on countering PLAN dual-carrier operations involving the Liaoning and Shandong?

The available evidence points toward land-based aerial refuelling throughput as the more immediate operational bottleneck during carrier strike group absences. While airfield defences at Kadena Air Base can intercept initial missile waves, land-based tactical fighters rapidly exhaust tanker capacity when attempting to maintain continuous combat air patrols over the Philippine Sea. This logistical constraint restricts the operational reach of land-based aviation long before airfield infrastructure incurs physical attrition.

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