RAF Eurofighter Typhoons. (Photo : RAF)
The United Kingdom has announced it will regularly patrol the disputed South China Sea, first with jet fighters from the Royal Air Force and later with jets from aircraft carriers of the Royal Navy.
The patrols, which will infuriate China, are meant to reinforce the right of nations to freedom of navigation in this disputed maritime area.
The Royal Navy patrols will begin by 2020 when the Royal Navy's newest aircraft carrier, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, becomes fully operational. The Royal Navy said jet fighters from the Queen Elizabeth will fly over the South China Sea.
It also expressed concerns about restrictions to freedom of navigation in the South China Sea as a result of China's string of man-made islands, some of which have become military bases with facilities for jet fighters, surface-to-air missiles, anti-ship missiles, radar installations and warships.
The first Royal Air Force patrols over the South China Sea might take place as early as this year, however.
United Kingdom Ambassador to the United States Sir Nigel Kim Darroch said British Eurofighter Typhoon multirole fighters currently deployed on a visit to Japan will fly across disputed parts of the South China Sea to assert international overflight rights.
Darroch, however, gave no time frame for this patrol but four Typhoons landed in Japan in late October to take part in its first aerial exercise with fighters of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF).
The Typhoons are still at the Misawa Air Base in Aomori Prefecture in Japan while the exercise dubbed "Exercise Guardian North 16" ended Nov. 6. The exercise involved air defense, dogfighting and ground-attack training.
"Certainly, as we bring our two new aircraft carriers onstream in 2020, and as we renew and update our defense forces, they will be seen in the Pacific," said Darroch.
"And we absolutely share the objective of this U.S. administration, and the next one, to protect freedom of navigation and to keep sea routes and air routes open."
Darroch said the United Kingdom "we will try to play our part" in the Pacific.
The HMS Queen Elizabeth is a few months from sea trials and is expected to be fully operational by 2020. Her sister ship -- the HMS Prince of Wales -- is scheduled to be launched around 2017. She will be commissioned in 2020 and enter service thereafter.
