Time magazine says in an unusual move, the U.S. has assembled a powerful air, land and sea armada in the East China Sea not far from where Japan and China are squaring off over disputed islands.

The U.S. weekly says that two Navy aircraft carrier battle groups and a Marine Corps air-ground task force have begun operating in the Western Pacific within easy reach of the Senkaku Islands.

Time says Navy officials confirmed Sunday that the USS George Washington carrier strike group began operating in the East China Sea, and the USS John C. Stennis group is operating just a short distance away in the South China Sea.

In the nearby Philippine Sea, some two-thousand-200 Marines are reportedly embarked aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard and two escort vessels.

The report says the three carrier groups held a joint training exercise near Guam earlier this month with Japan's Self-Defense Forces that involved live-fire with missiles and joint beach landings.

Time cited a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Command explaining the training missions and carrier deployments are not necessarily related to the Senkaku dispute.