So, when does the USS Vinson strike team get

[MineralMan]

to the vicinity of Korea. I know the Navy keeps its ship movements secret, so there's no real reporting on the team's current location, that I can find. I believe that no action will be taken until it is in place.

BTW, there's a Newsweek story that says Japanese warships are joining the Vinson strike team.

http://www.newsweek.com/japanese-warships-join-us-aircraft-carrier-east-china-sea-582893

[Brother Buzz]

1. Ship movements secret?

It was widely reported the Strike Force departed Singapore over a week ago. I suspect they are doing the race track circuit somewhere east of North Korea right now.

[MineralMan]

6. Well, the Navy doesn't release location information.

It would have to come from somewhere else.

[Brother Buzz]

7. They release vague locations...

and it doesn't take a rocket surgeon to determine where they are going. Bummer for the sailors of the task force, they were originally scheduled to depart from Singapore and steam to Australia for R&R.

http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=99815

[MineralMan]

8. Well, if the Carrier force is in the immediate area,

it would be more likely that Trump might do something. He needs his actors in place before the curtain comes up.

Sounds like they are now in place. Kim Jong Un should think twice before following up his failed missile launch with a nuclear weapons test. That would almost certainly lead Trump to do something.

[Brother Buzz]

15. There's more happening with the failed missile launch than meets the eye

I've heard two sources suggesting there is an ongoing super double top secret operation that has the ability to throw a wrench in North Korea's weapons program at will. Specifics are not forthcoming, it's secret you know, but after being read-in by Xi and the Chinese, even Trump admits it's complicated. Trump and Kim Jong Un's bluster aside, the back channels are working reasonably well.

That Strike Group is for domestic consumption, but at the end of the day, it's not going to give the orange anus a bump in the polls.

[MineralMan]

19. That's possible, but not certain.

I don't know who your two sources are, so I can't evaluate the accuracy of their suggestions. It wouldn't surprise me all that much, but I don't know whether we have any methods to do that to North Korea.

I don't give a damn about Trump's polls, either. I'm more concerned about the possibility that he might start something he can't deal with and that might be a threat to others, like people in South Korea, including a helluva lot of US military personnel. Trump is a stupid, stupid man.

[Triloon]

2. According to Korean newspapers

the Vinson battle group was positioned 300 miles from the NK nuclear test site on Friday.
Here's a site that aggregates NK media releases, although the Vinson position came from S Korean paper. https://kcnawatch.co/

[MineralMan]

3. OK, thanks. It's in place, then.

Now, I'm more worried.

[MineralMan]

10. Assuming a 30 knot speed, it would take about 4.5 days

to travel from Singapore to that area. So, that sounds about right, I guess. I assume that that attack group could maintain 30 knots, if necessary.

[Lucinda]

4. KNR

[underpants]

5. BC

[pintobean]

9. Just ask the girls in Pusan.

[MineralMan]

11. Right. Let me check my phone's contact list...

[pintobean]

12. It was a reference to how "secret" ships' movements are.

[MineralMan]

13. See, since I really don't know how many knots a carrier strike group typically makes

in transit, it's a little hard to guess how long it would take them to go from Singapore to a location off North Korea. Maybe I should know those things, but I'm not a Navy sort of guy.

I doubt there's going to be any shore leave in Pusan, frankly, just now, so the girls there might well not know. I understood what you meant, but thought it was irrelevant to my question, so I responded as I did.

Based on other information, it appears that the strike group should have just recently arrived in the area or will arrive soon. What I'm trying to do is anticipate when our lovely occupant of the White House might order some sort of military action. How long the transit would take also depends on what speed they were ordered to make during this transit. A high-speed transit can be very costly, so it's not normally done as a routine thing.

I really don't consider this to be all that humorous, actually. But, that's OK. You go right on making jokes like that one.

[pintobean]

14. Uh huh

You might want to re-read your OP.

[MineralMan]

18. As might you.

At the time I wrote it, I had not actually done more than a cursory news search. After I wrote it, I did a little more investigation, but still do not have a solid answer about whether the USS Vinson is patrolling off North Korea. Neither do you, I'm certain.

It's fine with me if you want to poke at me in threads I start. I don't really care. I'm used to that. However, this is a serious matter, and I intend to be serious about it.

[cwydro]

16. I can't imagine much of ship movements can possibly be secret these days.

Satellites, etc.

Not to mention, I think someone posted that the Vinson even has a Facebook page!

[MineralMan]

17. Yes, the Vinson does have a facebook page, which also has

a warning against releasing any current position locations.

While it's true that most ship movements aren't all that secret, exact positions are not known for military vessels, in general. Go look on Google. You won't find any information about current positions, unless a ship is in a port. For commercial vessels, on the other hand, you can find maps showing their positions pretty accurately if you know the name of the vessel. Not so for military ships.

And that's why I asked. I couldn't find out if that group had arrived off North Korea. I knew it was heading there, of course, but whether it is in position and exactly where is not public information, apparently.

[cwydro]

21. Lol, I wouldn't begin to think I could find it on google.

That cracks me up actually.

But, I'm pretty sure any hostile actors out there know exactly where ships are at any given time.

Or anyone with satellite access. It would be very naïve to think otherwise.

[cloudbase]

20. Ah, memories. n/t