USNI News:
U.S. Pacific Command commander Adm. Harry Harris said the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group can “absolutely” defend itself against anything North Korea could shoot at it, despite media reports to the contrary.
Harris, testifying before the House Armed Services Committee today, called stories – such as this Wednesday’s article by Bloomberg, which he and HASC chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) alluded to but did not mention by name – “misleading.”
“There was an article that came out this morning from one of the outlets that suggested that the Carl Vinson strike group … with its incredible capability, to include two guided-missile destroyers, the Wayne E. Meyer and Michael Murphy, and the Lake Champlain cruiser, that somehow that that carrier strike group would not be able to defend itself against ballistic missiles,” Harris told Thornberry.
“We have ballistic missile ships in the Sea of Japan, the East Sea, that are capable of defending against ballistic missiles. North Korea does not have a ballistic missile anti-ship weapon that would threaten the Carl Vinson strike group. The weapons that North Korea could put against the Carl Vinson strike group are easily defended by the capabilities resident in that strike group. If it flies it will die, if it’s flying against the Carl Vinson strike group. I’m confident in that strike group’s ability to not only defend itself but to project power, if that is the call that we receive from the president and secretary of defense.”
