The US Navy today said the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier was conducting scheduled operations in the Philippine Sea in the Western Pacific, a 5.7 million square kilometre (2.2 million square mile) stretch of ocean that includes waters southeast of Taiwan.

"USS Ronald Reagan and her strike group are underway in the Philippine Sea continuing normal, scheduled operations as part of her routine patrol in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific," a US Navy Seventh Fleet spokesperson said.

Home-ported at Yokosuka naval base in Japan, the Reagan is the US Navy's only forward-deployed carrier.

- Reuters