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On Monday, April 10, it was reported that both a U.S. and a Chinese carrier strike group were operating near Taiwan as political tensions continue to simmer following a Taiwanese presidential meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). The Nimitz Carrier Strike Group was operating in the vicinity of Taiwan in the Philippine Sea, according to the USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker. USS Nimitz (CVN-68) is also operating in the Philippine Sea following a series of exercises with Japanese and Koreans with Exercise Ssang 2023.
On Thursday, April 13, North Korea conducted its first intercontinental ballistic missile launch in a month. According to KCNA, the test was a new solid-fuel ICBM, the Hwasong-18, which was first unveiled during a military parade in February. Japan briefly urged residents on a northern island to take shelter, indicating its vigilance over North Korea’s evolving missile threats. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the launch and reiterated his calls on North Korea to comply with U.N. resolutions banning such launches, reopen communications channels, and resume dialogue toward peace and denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, his spokesman said.
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Also on Thursday, the Russian government approved an agreement signed back in 2022 on the establishment of a common regional air defense system with Kyrgyzstan. While the agreement has long been in the works, the timing of Moscow’s procedural step has drawn attention, given the war in Ukraine and the precarious neutrality of Central Asia.
On Friday, April 14, it was reported that China has tested and deployed a new longer-range hypersonic missile that is probably able to evade U.S. defenses, according to an overlooked top-secret document among those recently leaked. Now, the public can see what the American intelligence community already knew: China is quickly improving its capacity to strike thousands of miles from its shores and prevent the United States from intervening.
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