Deputy Chief of the general staff of the People’s Liberation Army: Chinese patrols in Asian Seas 'Legitimate'; First F-35s to be operational by 2015
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  • According to reports, Chinese warships will continue to patrol waters where China has territorial claims. Lt. Gen. Qi Jianguo, deputy chief of the general staff of the People’s Liberation Army, defended the patrols as legitimate and said his country’s sovereignty over the areas could not be disputed. “Why are Chinese warships patrolling in East China Sea and South China Sea? I think we are all clear about this,” Qi told the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security conference in Singapore. “Our attitude on East China Sea and South China Sea is that they are in our Chinese sovereignty. We are very clear about that.” He added that, “the Chinese warships and the patrolling activities are totally legitimate and uncontroversial,” while maintaining that China has no hegemonic ambitions. 1
    In another development, according to reports, the F-35 joint strike fighter will be operational for the US Marines in December 2015, followed by the Air Force in December 2016 and the Navy in February 2019. These initial operating capacity (IOC) dates were delivered to the U.S. Congress on May 31 and announced shortly thereafter. According to a Pentagon news release, IOC will be achieved for each service when they “acquire enough aircraft to establish one operational squadron with enough trained and equipped personnel to support the various missions prescribed by each service.” The size of each squadron varies from service to service, with 10 aircraft for the Marines, 12 for the Air Force and 10 for the Navy. 2

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