As a reporter on Look North I had been documenting the regular problems the yard had faced as its order book would seem to be depleting, only for another military warship order to restore its fortunes.

BBC: Reliving Swan Hunter's darkest day 20 years ago

South Korea and the US - with which it has a long military relationship - had already been conducting large-scale military exercises, following the apparent torpedoing of a South Korean warship by the North on 26 March, which killed 46 south Korean sailors.

BBC: New South Korea exercises to test border tension

The military thinking behind a cruiser such as the Ticonderoga class is to create an offensive warship that will also provide defensive firepower for a carrier group or amphibious operation under air or sea attack.

BBC: News | In Depth | Military Fact Files

China's Defence Ministry immediately refuted a report on Monday by Japan's Kyodo news agency that said unnamed "senior Chinese military officials" admitting recently, and for the first time, that a Chinese warship did lock weapons-guiding radar on a Japanese destroyer on 30 January.

BBC: China media: Japan radar lock

As part of a concerted diplomatic push, on November 16th Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, was on the deck of an American warship in Manila Bay in the Philippines, to strengthen the two countries' military ties.

ECONOMIST: America reaches a pivot point in Asia