On April 8, with tensions rising on the Korean peninsula, Adm. Harry Harris, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, ordered the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and its support ships to head toward Korea, in what was widely seen as a show of force and warning for North Korea. Everybody seems to have expected the Vinson strike group to actually move toward the Koreas, but as of Saturday, it was some 3,500 miles south, off the coast of Sumatra, after taking part in scheduled joint exercises with Australian forces.
U.S. Navy officials confirmed that the Vinson was nowhere near Korea, telling Defense News off the record they didn't understand why the media kept reporting the strike group was headed that way. "We've made no such statement," one official said. Among those who did suggest the U.S. is sending "an armada," including submarines, toward North Korea was President Trump. If the Vinson traveled at its maximum speed of about 35 mph, Stars and Stripes calculated, the strike group could travel from Indonesia's Sunda Strait to the Korean peninsula in four to five days. Navy officials did not dispute reports from South Korea that the Vinson strike group would arrive around April 25.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
GOP's Mace seeks federal anti-trans bathroom banSpeed Read Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina has introduced legislation to ban transgender people from using federal facilities
-
Ukraine fires ATACMS, Russia ups hybrid warSpeed Read Ukraine shot U.S.-provided long-range missiles and Russia threatened retaliation
-
New York DA floats 4-year Trump sentencing freezeSpeed Read President-elect Donald Trump's sentencing is on hold, and his lawyers are pushing to dismiss the case while he's in office
-
Wyoming judge strikes down abortion, pill bansSpeed Read The judge said the laws — one of which was a first-in-the-nation prohibition on the use of medication to end pregnancy — violated the state's constitution
-
US sanctions Israeli West Bank settler groupSpeed Read The Biden administration has imposed sanctions on Amana, Israel's largest settlement development organization
-
Gaetz ethics report in limbo as sex allegations emergeSpeed Read A lawyer representing two women alleges that Matt Gaetz paid them for sex, and one witnessed him having sex with minor
-
Biden allows Ukraine to hit deep in RussiaSpeed Read The U.S. gave Ukraine the green light to use ATACMS missiles supplied by Washington, a decision influenced by Russia's escalation of the war with North Korean troops
-
Sri Lanka's new Marxist leader wins huge majoritySpeed Read The left-leaning coalition of newly elected Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake won 159 of the legislature's 225 seats
