The Navy has made public the names of three airmen lost at sea in a crash in the Pacific last week. It’s one of several fatal incidents this year involving US naval forces in Asia.

Dr Collin Koh, a maritime security expert at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, says that governments around Asia have watched the spate of incidents with concern.

“The problem is that for a very long time, regional governments, especially those in Southeast Asia, they have been looking at the US Navy to sort of play the big role in stabilizing the region,” said Dr Koh.