When Every Little Thing is News

A few news items this morning worth noting. It would appear that just as the USS George Washington (CVN 73) wraps up an exercise with Korea, what appears to be an even larger military exercise with Japan will begin.

Japan’s Self-Defense Forces will conduct large-scale joint military exercises with the U.S. between Dec. 3 and 10, sending numerous ships and aircrafts out into the waters and airspace surrounding Japan. According to the SDF, some 34,100 troops from Japan will participate in the drills, along with 10,400 from the U.S.

There is also a charter out in 7th fleet for a tanker. I haven't had a chance to look it up yet, but here is the news reporting.

Oil industry sources said the United States Navy was seeking a medium-range oil tanker to move at least 30,000 tonnes of jet fuel from early next week.

"MSC contracted vessels move nearly two billion barrels of fuel between Department of Defense facilities and units every year. This move of approximately 220,000 barrels represents a small percentage of that routine annual fuel movement," Davis said.

Some have described the movement of jet fuel from Japan to Korea as a big deal. Maybe, but I am not so sure and want to look up how many times a tanker has been chartered for similar purposes. I can think of several reasons why this could be getting intentionally blown out of proportion, and several of them have to do with trying to capitalize on current events in an attempt to get a higher price for the charter.