The destroyer passed through the waterway between mainland China and Taiwan on Wednesday, less than two weeks before Taiwan's new president takes office.
The deployment of the USS Reagan, homeported at Naval Station Yokosuka, Japan, kicked off in May. It entered the 5th Fleet’s area of operations at the end of June to relieve the aircraft carrier Eisenhower.
Navy leaders are concerned about increased Russian submarine activity in the North Atlantic and Chinese submarine activity in the Pacific. The U.S. homeland is no longer a sanctuary from such threats, they warn.
Though U.S. defense leaders often talk about great power competition in the future tense, the Navy’s leaders in U.S. 6th Fleet say it's already taking place in Europe. Perhaps nowhere is that clearer than the Black Sea.