A U.S. Air Force general who warned that the country could be at war with China in two years is leading an "unprecedented" training exercise in the Pacific, NBC News reports.
Gen. Mike Minihan made news in January when he wrote a memo warning his commanders of a potential conflict with China.
Minihan now is overseeing a two-week exercise involving airmen from the U.S. and its allies practicing resupply missions, aerial refueling and medical evacuations at bases in Hawaii, Guam, Australia, and Japan.
It's the first time the exercise, called Mobility Guardian, is focusing on the Pacific.
"I don't believe conflict is inevitable. I don't believe it's unavoidable," Minihan told NBC News. "But I also believe that ready now is what matters most. So ready now is the foundation of deterrence. And ready now is also the foundation of decisive victory."
The training effort involves 70 aircraft and more than 3,000 airmen from seven countries — the largest such exercise in Air Mobility Command history.
"On this scale," it's "really unprecedented," Air Force Capt. Brenden "Biggie" Small told NBC News.
Minihan's memo earlier this year directed all Air Mobility Command personnel to prepare for a potential fight with China and practice their marksmanship — "fire a clip into a 7-meter target with the full understanding that unrepentant lethality matters most."
"Aim for the head," the general said.
Minihan, during an interview at U.S. Pacific Air Forces headquarters in Hawaii, told NBC News he stands by the memo.
"I'm not trying to be provocative. I'm not trying to be coy," Minihan told NBC News. "I'm trying to provide my formation with the tools and the action and the priority necessary to win."
U.S. and China militaries recently have had two close calls in the western Pacific.
In late May, Beijing responded to complaints from the U.S. about a Chinese fighter jet's dangerous interception of an American Air Force reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace over the South China Sea by demanding an end to such flights.
In early June, the U.S. military released video of what it called an "unsafe" Chinese maneuver in the Taiwan Strait on the weekend, in which a Chinese navy ship cut sharply across the path of an American destroyer, forcing the U.S. ship to slow to avoid a collision.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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