Carrier Group Returns to South China Sea Amid Tensions

...Bryan Clark, a retired submarine officer and analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments who has followed PACOM's strategy, said he thinks Harris is lobbying for more assertive freedom of navigation patrols that include military operations such as helicopter flights and signals intelligence within 12 miles of Chinese-claimed features. Such patrols, Clark said, would make clear the Navy does not acknowledge Chinese claims and that the surrounding waters are international. “He wants to do real [freedom of navigation operations],” Clark said. “He wants to drive through an area and do military operations.”