China’s first aircraft carrier Liaoning is set to conduct routine exercises in the Western Pacific Ocean along with its accompanying fleet amid territorial disputes in the region, Reuters reported Sunday.

Ben Blanchard writes China’s operation of the Liaoning carrier marks the first step in the country’s effort to deploy carriers built inside China by 2020.

Taiwan said through its defense ministry that it is monitoring the drills, according to the report.

Japan’s Maritime Self Defense Force ship and P3C patrol airplane detected Liaoning and other Chinese naval vessels traveling between Miyako and Okinawa and into the Pacific, Reuters reports.

Blanchard writes China’s first live-fire exercises with an aircraft carrier and fighters occurred in the northeastern Bohai Sea in early December.

The U.S. Marine Corps has concluded a joint training exercise at Novo Selo Training Area in Bulgaria along with eight partner nations from the Black Sea and Caucasus regions to beef up the NATO alliance.

Combined companies that comprised of marines from the Black Sea Rotational Force’s Golf Company, marines from the Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team and marines from other countries participated in various training scenarios as part of the Exercise Platinum Lion 17.1, USMC said Friday.

The training exercise included Combat Life Savers’ course, simulated casualty evacuation drills, combat marksmanship, room clearing procedures and live-fire squad attacks.

Capt. Norman Renfro, Golf Company commander, said the exercise aimed to help squad leaders review “their own procedures for patrolling, ambushes, raids and deliberate attacks.”

The exercise concluded the Black Sea Rotational Force, an annual multilateral security cooperation effort between the Marine Corps and partner nations in the Black Sea, Balkan and Caucasus regions.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter expects the U.S. and Japan to conclude an agreement over the rights of some civilian base workers in Japan in the near future, Stars and Stripes reported Sunday.

Erik Slavin writes the deal will remove some civilian base workers in the country from under the Status of Forces Agreement‘s protection from prosecution for criminal cases.

“I am pleased that the United States and Japanese negotiators have successfully reached an agreement in principle that clarifies the scope of the civilian component of the U.S. armed forces in Japan,” Carter was quoted as saying.

SOFA defines the rights and responsibilities for both military and civilian base employees in Japan and currently authorizes the nation’s law enforcers to question crime suspects with the latter remaining under U.S. custody at the bases until they are charged, according to the report.

Slavin reports U.S. and Japanese authorities agreed to define the categories of civilians under SOFA as part of the procedural changes.

The U.S. Navy has set up a detachment at a Marine Corps air station in New River, North Carolina, to help train crews and maintenance staff on the CMV-22B Osprey aircraft, Seapower magazine reported Thursday.

Richard R. Burgess writes the service branch’s airborne command and control logistics wing has begun to establish the detachment in compliance with a Dec. 1 directive.

The new unit will be called Airborne Command and Control Logistics Wing Medium Tilt-Rotor Training Detachment 204 and will be related to the Marine Medium Tiltrotor Training Squadron 204, Burgess reports

The military branch plans to begin procurement of 44 CMV-22Bs in 2018 and expects deliveries to start in 2020.

The carrier-onboard-delivery plane will feature a public address platform for the cabin, a high-frequency radio for use in long-range communications and additional fuel tankage, according to the report.

Boeing-built V-22 Osprey is a military transport aircraft that has two Rolls-Royce-built AE1107C engines and a tiltrotor technology designed to integrate a helicopter’s vertical performance with the fixed-wing aircraft’s speed and range.