美三個航母戰鬥羣十年來首次同時現身太平洋

The United States appears to be flexing its military might in the Pacific, sending three aircraft carriers to the region for potential exercises.

Pentagon officials Thursday downplayed the deployment of the USS Nimitz, the USS Ronald Reagan and the USS Theodore Roosevelt to the region, saying it had been planned “for quite a while.”

“It's just an opportunity to exercise three carrier strike groups together,” said Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, director of the Joint Staff. “We always seek to do that when we have an opportunity to do that – it doesn't come along very often.”

Officials also said the deployments were not directed at recent provocations by North Korea, but would likely bolster U.S. allies in the region.

The three carrier groups are still thousands of miles apart, and military officials did not share any details of when exercises might begin.

North Korea has repeatedly threatened to test both its missile and nuclear warhead capabilities.

Last month, an official said Pyongyang could test "the most powerful detonation" of a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean.

"North Korea makes a lot of threats and we are ready for anything that may come," Chief Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White told reporters Thursday, adding, “we haven't, to my knowledge, changed any of our status or our posture."

The last time the U.S. had three carrier strike groups in the Pacific Ocean was 2007.美國展示軍力，調遣三艘航空母艦前往太平洋，準備軍事演習。

五角大樓官員星期四淡化尼米茲號、里根號和羅斯福號航母開入太平洋的行動，稱之爲計劃了相當長時間的行動。

美軍聯合參謀部主任麥肯錫中將說：“這只是三個航母戰鬥羣一起演習的機會。我們每當有機會時都會這樣做，這種機會不常有。”

美國官員還說，這次部署行動不是針對朝鮮最近的挑釁，但是有可能鼓舞亞太地區美國盟友的士氣。

這三個航母戰鬥羣目前相距數千公里。美國軍方官員拒絕詳細說明什麼時候開始演習。

朝鮮一再威脅要測試其導彈以及核彈頭的能力。

一位美國官員上個月說，平壤有可能在太平洋上空試爆迄今爲止威力最大的氫彈。

五角大樓首席發言人懷特星期四對記者說：“朝鮮多次發出威脅。我們準備應對任何可能出現的局面。但是據我所知，我們沒有改變任何狀態或態勢。”

美國上次向太平洋調遣三個航母戰鬥羣是在2007年。