The United States has pulled its last aircraft carrier from Asia, as the Trump administration focuses on the Middle East and the Western Hemisphere. The USS George Washington is departing the Pacific and is expected to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East, which has been supporting operations against Iran.

Impact on the Pacific Region

The lack of a US carrier in the Pacific may be short-lived, but it shows how the open-ended operations with Iran are stretching the limits of US aircraft carriers. American allies in the Pacific are unsettled over the unpredictability of the Republican administration, while China sees the US military presence in the region as a threat to its rise and an obstacle to its ambition to seize Taiwan.

China has been conducting naval exercises with Indonesia and has shown signs of aggression toward Japan and the Philippines, two key US allies that also have territorial disputes with Beijing. The absence of a US carrier in the region gives China another opportunity to demonstrate its strength and undermine the US presence in the western Pacific.

US Military Presence in the Region

The US has argued that the Pacific region is too important economically to lose, but the Trump administration’s focus on the Middle East and the Western Hemisphere has raised concerns about the US commitment to the region. The US has 11 aircraft carriers and typically deploys two or three at a time, but the current deployment schedule has been affected by the Iran war and the need for maintenance.

Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.