Questions after US flotilla’s course

IT WAS supposed to be steaming towards North Korea more than a week ago, an “armada” signalling American resolve. Then it wasn’t.

Now, it seems the USS Carl Vinson may finally be heading north.

“Our deployment has been extended 30 days to provide a persistent presence in the waters off the Korean Peninsula,” Rear Admiral Jim Kilby, the commander of Carrier Strike Group One, said in a message posted on the Carl Vinson’s Facebook page addressed to “families and loved ones” of the personnel on board.

The Carl Vinson, accompanied by a carrier air wing, two guided-missile destroyers and a cruiser, was supposed to have been ordered to sail north after leaving Singapore on April 8. But a week later, the Navy published photos showing it was sailing the opposite direction through the Sunda Strait between the Indonesia islands of Sumatra and Java. The White House is now facing questions about why it was not clear about the carrier group’s whereabouts.

Several times the Trump administration had said the ships were heading north. – Washington Post