China, Russia Launch Largest-Ever Naval Drills

Russia and China are rapidly preparing for what will be the largest joint naval exercises in their history, according to The Washington Times.

That paper reports that the exercises, dubbed “Joint Sea 2015 II,” will feature more than 20 ships in the Pacific and including anti-submarine drills and amphibious landings.

The formidable display of power comes as both countries are challenging the United States on land and sea. Vladimir Putin’s expansionist Russia continues to fight a guerrilla conflict in Ukraine while pressuring other countries in Eastern Europe. The Chinese, meanwhile, are creating artificial islands in the Pacific to extend their territorial waters against Japan and other countries. The Chinese and Russian navies have held five such joint exercises over the past decade, the Times reports.

Putin himself joined a Russian navy team aboard a small vessel that plunged into the Black Sea along the coast of the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine last year. The U.S. Naval Institute’s online news and analysis portal, USNI, said Tuesday that the coming China-Russia exercises will be the second series of joint drills in less than a year.