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<ul class="summary-list"><li>US officials and lawmakers have for years voiced concern about growing US influence in <keyword id="11962841" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="latin-america" source="Orion">Latin America</keyword>.</li><li>For military and national-security leaders, that influence has security implications for the US.</li></ul>As the US increases its focus on global competition with <keyword id="11892748" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="china" source="Orion">China</keyword>, officials have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/southcom-4-ways-china-is-growing-influence-in-latin-america-2019-12" target="_blank" rel="noopener">singled out Beijing's inroads into Latin America</a> as a growing threat to countries there and to US interests in the region.At recent congressional hearings and public events, those officials have cautioned that China is investing in digital and physical infrastructure, natural resources and extractive industries, and in political and military relationships across Latin America and the Caribbean in a multipronged effort to secure access and influence and gain leverage over countries there in order to advance its own commercial and strategic interests.Although China's engagement with the region has focused on economic ties and it has not established a military presence there, US military commanders, national-security officials, and lawmakers believe Beijing's investments have implications for US security.At an August 2021 hearing on her nomination to lead <keyword id="14128431" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="us-southern-command" source="Orion">US Southern Command</keyword>, which is responsible for Central and South America, Gen. Laura Richardson said China comes to the region "with very sophisticated plans in order to capture the interests of the countries, willing to loan billions of dollars."<div type="image" title="Laura Richardson Southern Command Buenos Aires Argentina" height="1266" width="1688" msid="92039398" hostid="261"></div>"I look at that from the military lens of projecting and sustaining military power for the [Chinese People's Liberation Army] with this expansion," Richardson said at the time.Richardson's remarks echoed those of her predecessor, Adm. Craig Faller, who <a href="https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Faller_03-16-21.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the Senate Armed Services Committee in March 2021, his final appearance as commander, that China was "rapidly advancing" toward its goal of "economic dominance" in Latin America within the next decade.Beijing "is also seeking to establish global logistics and basing infrastructure in our hemisphere in order to project and sustain military power at greater distances," Faller told lawmakers.At a hearing on China's presence in the region in April, Sen. Marco Rubio, citing <a href="https://www.uscc.gov/annual-report/2021-annual-report-congress" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a report</a> by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, said China is using its economic heft and political ties to convince countries there to make decisions that favor Beijing and "undermine democracy and free markets."The same report, Rubio added, said China's military seeks "to deepen its engagement in the region by funding the construction of ports, space programs, and other dual-use infrastructure that frankly is pretty clear it appears to have a limited economic purpose but could serve as future operating bases, even of rotational bases, for a hostile navy close to our nation's shores."<h2>Strategic concerns</h2><div type="image" title="Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Panama Canal" height="1513" width="2000" msid="92039399" hostid="261"></div>China has become a major trading partner for most of Latin America and the Caribbean. Its trade with the region <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/review-essay/2022-02-24/latin-america-looks-east" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has risen</a> from $18 billion in 2002 to $450 billion last year.The region's largest countries have attracted Chinese investment in agricultural commodities as well as in ecommerce and other technology, including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/technology/ecuador-surveillance-cameras-police-government.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">surveillance technology</a>. Smaller, resource-rich countries in Latin America have attracted Chinese interest in mineral wealth and oil exploration.Chinese firms have also pursued infrastructure projects across the region — many as part of Beijing's sprawling <keyword id="12209625" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="belt-and-road-initiative" source="Orion">Belt and Road Initiative</keyword> — but especially in areas that facilitate access into or around the continent.Richardson has said the Chinese presence around the <keyword id="14128432" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="panama-canal" source="Orion">Panama Canal</keyword> and near the <keyword id="14128433" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="strait-of-magellan" source="Orion">Strait of Magellan</keyword> are her "two greatest concerns, strategically."The canal is one of the world's most important trade corridors, particularly for goods flowing between the US and East Asia. It is "a strategic line of communication that we want to keep free and open for the global economy but also for our global war plans," Richardson told senators in March.China has invested billions of dollars in projects around the canal and Chinese state-owned enterprises are present "on either side," Richardson said. "What I worry about Chinese state-owned enterprises that have capability and infrastructure there is that they can be used for dual use, which means civilian but also military."<div type="image" title="Navy aircraft carrier George Washington in Strait of Magellan" height="1320" width="2000" msid="92039400" hostid="261"></div>The Strait of Magellan sees less traffic but remains an important route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, including aircraft carriers too big for the canal, and is close to resource-rich Antarctica. China's presence in ports and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/r-chinas-military-run-space-station-in-argentina-is-a-black-box-2019-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">other projects</a> "around the tip of the southern cone" of South America is worrisome, Richardson said.US concerns about Chinese activity around the canal reflect a worry that such a presence "would give China at least some of the information" needed to understand trade and transit activity there and "to make decisions with security-related implications based on that information," Margaret Myers, director of the Asia and Latin America Program at the Inter-American Dialogue, told Insider.Richardson's counterpart at <keyword id="12554868" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="us-northern-command" source="Orion">US Northern Command</keyword>, which is responsible for North America and parts of the Caribbean, has expressed similar concerns. "China's very aggressive in the Bahamas right now," Gen. Glen VanHerck told the House Armed Services Committee in April 2021."They have the largest embassy in the Bahamas right now, and they continue to buy up [the] tourism industry to have access and influence," VenHerck said at the time, adding that those Chinese projects "do have access right now to an overwatch, if you will, of our Navy <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/navy-area-51-autec-in-the-bahamas-2016-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">test and training facilities</a>, which is very, very concerning."In the Caribbean, China sees similarities to its own "southeast maritime approaches," said R. Evan Ellis, a research professor of Latin American studies at the US Army War College."It sees exactly the same space — a space that has political importance, military importance, as well as economic importance" as a logistical hub and transit area connecting the US and Central and South America and points beyond, Ellis told Insider in late 2021.<div type="image" title="China navy hospital ship Peace Ark in Guayaquil Ecuador" height="1333" width="2000" msid="92039401" hostid="261"></div>Chinese military basing in Latin America is still "rather hypothetical" Myers told Insider, "but there's a sense that based on the sorts of investments that we see in areas of strategic interest to the US and some of the investments that we see in ports with potential dual-use capacity that things are headed in that direction."China set up its first overseas military base in Djibouti in East Africa in 2017 and is reportedly seeking a military presence in other regions, including the Middle East and West Africa. In <a href="https://www.congress.gov/117/meeting/house/114486/witnesses/HHRG-117-AS00-Wstate-RichardsonL-20220308.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">written testimony</a> to the House committee, Richardson expressed concern about China abusing "commercial agreements at host country ports for military functions," citing Chinese actions <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reviews/out?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fus-china-uae-military-11637274224" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in the United Arab Emirates</a>.China appears to have "some appetite to explore" a military presence in the Western Hemisphere but that is tempered by the proximity to the United States, a US analyst of Chinese foreign policy told Insider.China will likely "explore what it looks like to establish more significant military relationships in Africa or in the Pacific before they try something like that in the Western Hemisphere because of how much more likely a strong US reaction would be," the analyst said, requesting anonymity because of professional commitments.While China doesn't have a military presence in Latin America, the US military may have already experienced the impact of its influence there.In March 2021, US Coast Guard cutter Stone was <a href="https://warontherocks.com/2021/03/a-new-great-game-finds-the-south-atlantic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">turned away</a> from a port call in Argentina, which has developed close economic and political ties with China."We were going to do a port call in Argentina, and then Argentina has got some relational business arrangement things with China," Adm. Karl Schultz, the Coast Guard commandant at the time, said in May 2021. "We didn't end up going into Argentina, but it sort of starts to show people's allegiances and alignments."<h2>'A very close eye' on China</h2><div type="image" title="China UN peacekeeper Haiti" height="1453" width="2000" msid="92039402" hostid="261"></div>While some Latin American countries nurture ties with China for ideological reasons, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-military-wary-of-chinas-military-economic-presence-in-venezuela-2019-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">seeking to counter the US</a>, others have grown wary of Beijing because of US warnings and those countries' own <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/24/world/americas/ecuador-china-dam.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">experiences</a>.In Panama, Chinese investment expanded after then-President Juan Carlos Varela <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/panama-china-relations-2017-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recognized</a> Beijing over Taiwan in 2017. After President Laurentino Cortizo took office in 2019, projects around the canal were canceled or withdrawn for what Mari Carmen Aponte, the Biden administration's nominee for ambassador to Panama, said were "the right reasons, meaning because there was non-compliance of the contract."At her confirmation hearing in May, Aponte told lawmakers she would "keep a very close eye" on agreements the Chinese have made in Panama, as "they seem to over-promise but not necessarily to deliver."Such warnings have also irritated Latin American leaders, many of whom hear the paternalism that has <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ilhan-omar-elliott-abrams-testimony-on-venezuela-central-america-2019-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">often characterized</a> US policy toward the region. Many leaders want to <a href="https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/latin-america-doesnt-want-a-new-cold-war/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">avoid taking sides</a> in the competition between Beijing and Washington but welcome Chinese engagement because they see it as offering what the US is <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/review-essay/2022-02-24/latin-america-looks-east" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unable or unwilling</a> to provide, like expanded trade, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/neighbors-see-chance-to-play-us-china-in-vaccine-race-2021-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">coronavirus vaccines</a>, or infrastructure investment.Richardson often notes that 21 of the 31 countries in Southern Command's area of responsibility have signed onto China's Belt and Road Initiative and told the House Armed Services Committee this spring that several of its multibillion-dollar projects were particularly worrying, among them a $5.6 billion highway in Jamaica and a $3.9 billion metro project in Colombia, a close US ally."This region is rich in resources, and the Chinese don't go there to invest. They go there to extract," Richardson said of those projects.<div type="image" title="China Li Keqiang Jamaica Andrew Holness" height="900" width="1200" msid="92039404" hostid="261"></div>At an event in Washington, DC, in April, Jamaica's prime minister, Andrew Holness, <a href="https://www.press.org/events/npc-newsmaker-prime-minister-andrew-holness-jamaica" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> US concerns about Chinese projects there were "totally unwarranted" and that China has pursued investments in Jamaica for "a long time while the US has been looking all over the place.""We would want to see more US investment in Jamaica, but Jamaica can't postpone its development needs until the US decides to come in," Holness said.Sergio Guzmán, director of Colombia Risk Analysis, a political risk consultancy, said that when Colombia has issued tenders for infrastructure projects, "US companies are completely AWOL.""So how can the US blame Colombia for giving them over to Chinese bidders, who are, by the way, the lowest bidders?" Guzmán told Insider.The Biden administration's signature <keyword id="6356001" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="international" source="Orion">international</keyword> development effort, Build Back Better World, <a href="https://prospect.org/politics/build-back-better-dies-again/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has foundered</a>, and US private-sector investment has been hard to attract to the region, either because of the overall environment or because the opportunities, particularly infrastructure projects, aren't well suited for American firms."There are efforts to try to increase and incentivize US investment in Latin America and the Caribbean now. The problem is that a lot of these initiatives are private-sector-led," Myers said, "and in a moment in time when the investment environments aren't necessarily improving in Latin America, it's very difficult to generate that interest."<div type="image" title="Military officers meet during Panamax exercise" height="1429" width="2000" msid="92039406" hostid="261"></div>The US Defense Department is involved in some infrastructure projects, largely through the Corps of Engineers, but their total value is a fraction of what China has offered, Richardson said this spring.Richardson and other officials say the US military's best asset for engagement is security cooperation — military education, training, and other exchanges that build on the US's already extensive partnerships in the region.China "doesn't have partners. We have partners. We have exercises where I have 29 countries that participate," Richardson told the House Armed Services Committee in March, referring to the annual Panamax exercise, which simulates defense of the Panama Canal.China's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-is-watching-chinese-influence-with-latin-american-militaries-2020-12" target="_blank" rel="noopener">defense cooperation with Latin American countries</a> "is far less" than that of the US, "but it does exist and the overall trend line has been going up," Daniel Erikson, deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Western Hemisphere, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4x0GjgzFvs&amp;list=PLb0XJybQSgVhRVmqX9qyeHTJd14ITH2vY&amp;index=5&amp;ab_channel=FIUGordonInstitute" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> at a conference in May.The Pentagon is trying to "be more proactive" about engaging with countries in the region on issues relevant to them, such as training and exercises or in specific areas like cyber defense, Erikson said."As the overall security dynamic in the relationship evolves, what we need to do to out-compete evolves as well," Erikson added. "That's something that we're working very hard to stay on top of."

The US military is watching China's presence grow in Latin America, and it doesn't like where things are going

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The <keyword id="10986979" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Ever-Given">Ever Given</keyword> container ship getting stuck in the <keyword id="168216" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Suez-canal">Suez Canal</keyword> was a billion-dollar disruption to global trade.</li><li>The incident also illustrated an overlooked maritime threat, Rep. Elaine Luria said this month.</li><li>That threat is growing, especially as <keyword id="1334" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="China">China</keyword> expands its presence at chokepoints around the world, Luria said</li></ul>The container ship Ever Given getting stuck in the Suez Canal in March was a billion-dollar demonstration of an overlooked security threat, a top Democrat in Congress says."I would have liked to have more focus and more people's hair on the back of their neck standing up, because I think a lot of people don't think about maritime chokepoints," Rep. Elaine Luria, vice chair of the House Armed Services Committee, said at a Navy League event in July.The Ever Given was dislodged after six days, and experts were quick to note <a href="https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2021/03/suez-grounding-was-accident-next-blocked-chokepoint-might-not-be/173011/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the military significance</a> - in 2014, <keyword id="6358826" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Russia">Russia</keyword> sunk obsolete ships to block Ukrainian ships in a Crimean port. Disruptions like that are a threat in more places than most people think, Luria says."If you ask people if they even know what a chokepoint is they would probably come up with the Suez Canal [and] the <keyword id="450959" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Panama-Canal">Panama Canal</keyword>, but not a lot of other ones," Luria said at the Hudson Institute this month.Many chokepoints are already closely monitored. The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-navy-faces-a-huge-liability-in-countering-irans-use-of-sea-mines-2018-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Strait of Hormuz</a>, through which much of the world's oil is shipped, and the Bab-el-Mandeb, through which Suez Canal traffic passes, both have a heavy multinational military presence to counter threats from state and non-state actors.<div type="image" title="Navy aircraft carrier Forrestal" height="1643" width="2500" msid="85257291" hostid="261"></div>Other chokepoints are seeing increasing military activity amid changes to the security and natural environment.The Greenland-Iceland-UK Gap, which Russian warships must transit to reach the Atlantic Ocean, is an area of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-nato-do-quite-well-against-russian-subs-admiral-says-2021-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">renewed focus for NATO</a>. The Strait of Malacca is a vital channel between the Indian and Pacific oceans, and China's increasing presence there has worried neighboring countries, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/india-china-border-clashes-could-cause-more-indian-ocean-activity-2020-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">particularly India</a>.A more accessible Arctic may also make the <keyword id="283907" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Bering-Strait">Bering Strait</keyword> busier. In March 2020, the US Navy's top officer said he expected that strait will "at some point" be "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bering-strait-importance-grows-amid-us-russia-tension-arctic-activity-2020-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener">strategically as important</a>" as the straits of Malacca or Hormuz.US policymakers and military officials have warned repeatedly about China's presence in those waterways and at ports around the world.China's construction of bases in the South China Sea is an effort to "create their own chokepoints" in one of the world's busiest shipping corridors, Luria said this month, adding that China's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pentagon-report-on-china-military-base-expansion-2017-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sole overseas military base</a>, in Djibouti near the Bab-el-Mandeb, is also in "an incredibly strategic point."Beijing has added "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-overseas-base-big-enough-for-aircraft-carriers-us-commander-2021-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a significant pier</a>" at that base that can accommodate an aircraft carrier, the head of US Africa Command said this spring, warning that China also sought a naval facility on Africa's Atlantic coast "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-wants-navy-access-africa-west-coast-africom-commander-says-2021-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">where they can rearm and repair warships</a>."<div type="image" title="China army military soldiers troops base Djibouti" height="2074" width="3351" msid="85257296" hostid="261"></div>China has also invested heavily in Latin American countries, which experts say it could leverage for military benefit, including around the Strait of Magellan, through which Chinese ships first sailed nearly a decade ago.Adm. Craig Faller, head of US Southern Command, has <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/southcom-4-ways-china-is-growing-influence-in-latin-america-2019-12" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned about Chinese investment in dozens of ports</a> in the region, including <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/key-decision-point-coming-panama-canal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on both sides</a> of the Panama Canal.Army Gen. Laura Richardson, who will replace Faller, told lawmakers this month that "two ports on either end of the [Panama] Canal are owned by Chinese state-owned enterprises, and so that's very concerning."In the Arctic, Russia wants to do "the same thing" that China is doing in the South China Sea by exercising control over traffic along the Northern Sea Route, Luria said this month. Even before Ever Given was freed, Russian officials were <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-ship-stuck-suez-canal-good-for-northern-sea-route-2021-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">using the incident to promote that route</a>."So we literally have the Chinese and the Russians who want to essentially create new chokepoints, and not only that but the Chinese have positioned themselves in a variety of ways at every major chokepoint in the world," Luria added.<div type="image" title="Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Panama Canal" height="1513" width="2000" msid="85257301" hostid="261"></div>US officials have warned that Chinese investments in infrastructure, particularly in ports, are being made with the goal of developing "dual use" capabilities that would support future military operations.Whether China has the political influence and logistical ability to establish such facilities is still uncertain, but the Djibouti base and other facilities that Chinese firms own or have stakes in aren't suited for power projection, according to John Culver, who retired from the CIA in 2020 after more than 30 years as a Chinese military analyst."I think that the [intelligence] community can maybe take a breath here about the dire threat of Chinese bases as locuses of power projection," Culver <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5PigxwyO1U" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in May. "I think they're really more the accoutrements of a great power, especially a country with global trading."But China's growing presence around the world's most important waterways still presents an outsize risk, Luria said this month."The interruption to the flow of trade and these geographic maritime chokepoints are ways that [China] can disrupt that are not just one-on-one, like naval vessel vs. naval vessel," Luria said.

The Ever Given incident is a warning about what Russia and China are capable of, top Democrat warns

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The <keyword id="11898296" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="aircraft-carrier" source="Orion">aircraft carrier</keyword> <keyword id="12256453" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="uss-kitty-hawk" source="Orion">USS Kitty Hawk</keyword> left Washington for a scrapyard in Texas on Saturday.</li><li>The US Navy previously sold the Kitty Hawk to a shipbreaking company for just one cent.</li></ul>The US Navy warship USS Kitty Hawk, the last commissioned conventional-powered aircraft carrier, embarked on its final voyage on Saturday, leaving Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Washington, to be turned into scrap metal by a shipbreaking company in Brownsville, Texas, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CNRNW/posts/291394496353961">the Navy said</a>.The Navy decommissioned the first-in-class ship in 2009 after 48 years of service, putting the ship in mothballs for over a decade before selling the carrier and the USS John F. Kennedy to International Shipbreaking Limited for just one cent each in October, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-sells-2-aircraft-carriers-1-cent-each-2021-10">Insider previously reported</a>.Because the Kitty Hawk is much too large, at over 280 feet wide and more than 1,000 feet long, to traverse the Panama Canal, the "Battle Cat" will make its final journey to Texas via the Strait of Magellan, a natural passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, <a href="https://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/2022/01/15/old-carrier-uss-kitty-hawk-departs-bremerton-texas-dismantling/6534565001/">The Kitsap Sun reported</a>.The journey around South America could take it across roughly 16,000 miles and over 130 days to complete, <a href="https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/43906/famed-aircraft-carrier-uss-kitty-hawk-is-on-her-final-voyage-to-the-scrappers-torch">The War Zone reported</a>.<div type="image" title="Navy tug boats support the USS Kitty Hawk’s towing in its final transit from a Naval Base in Kitsap, Washington to a ship-breaking facility in Brownsville, Texas." height="750" width="1000" msid="88982383" hostid="261"></div>Launched in 1960 and commissioned the following year, the Kitty Hawk carried out missions around the world and participated in combat operations in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The ship later served as the only forward-deployed carrier for 10 years.Notable moments from its many years of service include testing whether U-2 spy planes could be launched from the deck of a carrier; a race riot; and a collision with a Soviet submarine.The Kitty Hawk was the last commissioned oil-powered US Navy aircraft carrier to be decommissioned. The current fleet is made up entirely of nuclear-powered carriers."As hard as life was on this ship, it's part of my history," Corey Urband, who served as a machinist's mate on the Kitty Hawk in the 1990s, <a href="https://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/2022/01/15/old-carrier-uss-kitty-hawk-departs-bremerton-texas-dismantling/6534565001/">told The Kitsap Sun</a>. "While most people were graduating from high school and college, I was 30 feet below the waterline, halfway around the world from home." The former sailor watched from shore as the ship left Bremerton over the weekend.The aircraft carrier is the last of the Kitty Hawk-class carriers, as the other two ships in the three-ship class were either scrapped or scuttled.

A last-of-its-kind US Navy aircraft carrier is headed to the scrapyard after being sold for a cent

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The former <keyword id="12256453" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="uss-kitty-hawk" source="Orion">USS Kitty Hawk</keyword> arrived at a scrapyard in Brownsville, Texas, this week.</li><li>The ship served nearly 50 years and is the last conventionally powered carrier to be decommissioned.</li></ul>The US Navy's last commissioned conventionally powered <keyword id="11898296" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="aircraft-carrier" source="Orion">aircraft carrier</keyword>, the former USS <keyword id="14100617" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="kitty-hawk" source="Orion">Kitty Hawk</keyword>, finished its final voyage on Tuesday when it arrived at a scrapyard in Brownsville, Texas, <a href="https://myrgv.com/local-news/2022/05/31/great-days-uss-kitty-hawk-veterans-bid-final-farewell/">according to local media</a>.The "Battle Cat" <a href="https://www.insider.com/us-navy-aircraft-carrier-kitty-hawk-final-voyage-scrapped-2022-1">started its 16,000-mile journey to the scrapyard in January</a> at Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Washington.In the months that followed, the aircraft carrier, which at over 280 feet wide and more than 1,000 feet long is too large to go through the Panama Canal, was towed around South America and through the Strait of Magellan to Texas, where many people, including former service members, gathered to watch as it arrived this week.The Kitty Hawk was decommissioned in 2009 <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/last-conventionally-powered-carrier-uss-kitty-hawk-being-scrapped-2022-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">after nearly 50 years of naval service</a>, which included the testing of new military capabilities, combat operations, race riots, and even a collision with a rival power's submarine.The first-in-class ship was the last of the Navy's conventional carriers, which were replaced by the nuclear-powered Nimitz- and Ford-class carriers, to be decommissioned.After retirement, the carrier spent more than a decade in mothballs before the Navy <a href="https://myrgv.com/local-news/2021/10/04/decommissioned-kitty-hawk-jfk-to-be-dismantled-in-brownsville/">reached a deal in 2021</a> with International Shipbreaking Limited to scrap the former Kitty Hawk and the former USS John F. Kennedy, another conventionally powered Navy aircraft carrier that was decommissioned in 2007, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/160756887336278/posts/good-daywe-have-received-a-flood-of-inquiries-and-messages-regarding-the-ex-kitt/4743154782429776/">for just a penny each</a>.The shipbreaking company, which has not purchased the ship and will not take ownership of the vessel from the Navy, agreed to recycle the carrier for such a low price because it expects to make a profit from the sale of scrap, ISL told Insider.<div type="image" title="A Russian-made Tupolev TU-16 Badger-A surveillance bomber flies with U. S. Navy escort fighters over the attack carrier USS Kitty Hawk during Cold War activities over the North Pacific Ocean in January of 1963" height="812" width="1024" msid="91971442" hostid="261"></div>The carrier Kitty Hawk's service history has been at times thrilling and at others tumultuous.Just two years after it was commissioned into naval service in 1961, the CIA partnered with the Navy to practice launching and recovering the U-2 Dragon Lady high-altitude reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft from the Kitty Hawk.Pilot Bob Schumacher tested the "carrier suitability" of the spy plane, which was given the code name N315X, <a href="https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/k/kitty-hawk-cva-63-ii.html">according to a report by Naval History and Heritage Command</a>.In 1969, the aircraft carrier and its air wing were awarded a presidential unit citation for "inflicting extensive damage and destruction to sites and installations vital to the enemy's operations" during the Vietnam War's Tet Offensive.<div type="image" title="United States Navy personnel shrouded in steam as they prepare a Douglas A-4 Skyhawk for take-off from USS Constellation, a Kitty Hawk-class supercarrier, off the coast of South Vietnam, 16th August 1966" height="678" width="1024" msid="91971443" hostid="261"></div>The carrier remained on station through some of the toughest parts of the war, with the air wing conducting hundreds of strikes and dropping millions of pounds of ordnance on the enemy, but the long deployments took their toll and fueled longstanding tensions among the crew.Race riots <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/last-conventionally-powered-carrier-uss-kitty-hawk-being-scrapped-2022-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">erupted on the Kitty Hawk</a> in 1972, with a number of fights between white and Black sailors breaking out across parts of the ship. More than 40 and possibly as many as 60 sailors were injured in the riots, which ultimately led to the creation of a program meant to address racial issues on Navy vessels.Another tense incident happened in 1984, during the later years of the Cold War amid heightened tensions with the Soviet Union.While the ship was conducting operations in the Sea of Japan, known in South Korea as the East Sea, a Soviet submarine believed to be the Victor I-class nuclear submarine K-314 collided with the carrier while it was surfacing, causing what the carrier's captain described as "a fairly violent shudder."The incident, while alarming, did not result in escalation between the two powers.<div type="image" title="Sailors man the rails as the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) enters into Apra Harbor, Guam, April 20, 2001" height="1500" width="2258" msid="91971444" hostid="261"></div>In 1998, the Kitty Hawk took over for the Independence as America's only forward-deployed carrier, operating out of a US naval base in Japan.It carried out those responsibilities for 10 years, only leaving its position in the Pacific to support Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and later Operation Iraqi Freedom. The carrier left Japan for good in 2008 and was retired the following year.The Kitty Hawk was not only the last commissioned US Navy conventionally powered aircraft carrier, but it was also the last ship in its class to be decommissioned. Dismantling of the warship is expected to take roughly a year and a half.

US Navy aircraft carrier to be broken down for just a cent arrives at scrapyard after 16,000-mile final voyage

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Chinese engagement with Latin American countries has increased across the board, with growing investments in industry and infrastructure as well as military relationships.</li><li><keyword id="1334" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="China">China</keyword> doesn't have a military presence in the region, but US defense officials are watching closely as Beijing courts military officials from across the region.</li></ul>Officials across the US government are watching China's dealings with the US's Latin American neighbors closely, including officials from the US Defense Department.China doesn't have a military presence in the region, and its growing influence is focused on economics and trade, but "there is the political aspect of Chinese influence, and they're being very aggressive in exploiting but also facilitating the <keyword id="46183" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Corruption">corruption</keyword>," John Kreul, acting deputy secretary of defense for the Western Hemisphere, said at a Johns Hopkins University virtual event in November.That corruption is meant to secure business deals and favorable investments, Kreul said, but it also targets individual political figures with the goal of following them as they rise through the government."Right now that's to a large extent what they're doing on the military side as well," Kreul said. "You see a lot of offers for education and exchanges or sending military leaders off to China for extended professional military education."Those exchanges are similar to what the US offers, Kreul added, "but the feedback is often, 'Hey, this is just straight up recruitment and propaganda 24/7 while these guys are in China.' So that's something that we've got our eye on."<div type="image" title="China Venezuela hospital ship" height="1359" width="2000" msid="79667362" hostid="261"></div>People-to-people military exchanges between China and Latin American countries have been <a href="https://www.americasquarterly.org/fulltextarticle/chinas-military-activity-in-latin-america/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">conducted</a> for some time, though similar exchanges with US have taken place for decades longer and in much greater numbers.But the US government sees those interpersonal contacts as part of a larger Chinese strategy to advance its economic and political interests - in the latter case, largely <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-influence-over-taiwan-in-latin-america-2018-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to lure away Taiwan's dwindling allies</a>, many of whom are in <keyword id="48890" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Latin-America">Latin America</keyword>."China's military and security engagement strategy is focused on expanding military-to-military contacts, personnel exchanges, arms sales, and military operations other than war in support of Beijing's broader foreign policy objectives," the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission said in <a href="https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/Research/China's%20Engagement%20with%20Latin%20America%20and%20the%20Caribbean_.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a 2018 report</a>."China's military engagement and arms sales in the region seek to build political capital and good will among [Latin American and Caribbean] states, foster institutional and personal relationships with [Latin American and Caribbean] military leaders, and gain geopolitical influence," the report added.Uniformed US military officials <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/19/us-military-targets-growing-russian-and-chinese-influence-in-latin-america/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">have echoed that assessment</a>, including Navy Adm. Craig Faller, who oversees military operations in the region as head of <keyword id="248388" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="US-Southern-Command">US Southern Command</keyword>.Those arms sales remain small - Latin American countries are not major weapons buyers - but "China's also gifting a lot of military hardware to the partners, to the extent to which it undermines partnerships with the US [and] contributes to instability," Faller <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/southcom-4-ways-china-is-growing-influence-in-latin-america-2019-12" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said in October 2019</a>.Asked at an event this month about Chinese <keyword id="41945" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Military-training">military training</keyword> and individual engagement, Faller praised US training exchanges, saying that China has "tried to copy that.""Clearly they're trying to achieve a value-added training. I would not want to denigrate the current level of their training," Faller told Insider. "The reports I get are that they're striving to reach a level that adds value, but at the current level they're heavily influenced with Chinese political philosophy, commentary, and very, very controlled."<div type="image" title="China nurses Peru hospital ship" height="1333" width="2000" msid="79667365" hostid="261"></div>Chinese programs don't stimulate "free intellectual, innovative thinking" that accompanies the "core professionalism" of US programs, Faller said, adding that China doesn't vet program participants to screen out those implicated in rights abuses."So I would offer ours remains the gold standard," Faller said, "but we're watching it very, very carefully and closely in terms of numbers and volume."In his comments in November, Kreul said that from a "defense perspective" the US is still "in a pretty strong position in the region.""For almost everybody, we are the partner of choice. Our partners pretty much exclusively prefer US training, US military education, US equipment, though they certainly are not always in a position to afford buying our systems, and that is a huge opening for China and others," Kreul added.While those defense relationships are seen as strong, US officials and experts have <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdzgpy9N0WQ&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;t=32amp;t=32" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned of advances</a> by Chinese state-owned and private firms in areas such as extractive industries, telecommunications and IT technology, and infrastructure development - in the latter case, Faller and others have cautioned that dozens of Chinese-led port projects could not only support Chinese basing but also challenge US access in the future."What does it look like if China has strategic control of the Strait of Magellan, the Panama Canal, or the approaches to the Gulf of Mexico through a Caribbean port? What does that look like in a global conflict?" Faller said this month.

You Searched For "strait of magellan" and got 5 results

The US military is watching China's presence grow in Latin America, and it doesn't like where things are going

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A last-of-its-kind US Navy aircraft carrier is headed to the scrapyard after being sold for a cent

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US Navy aircraft carrier to be broken down for just a cent arrives at scrapyard after 16,000-mile final voyage

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The US is keeping a close eye on China's one-on-one time with its neighbors, defense officials say

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