04 May 2010 By Rick Rozoff The United States has six naval fleets and eleven
aircraft carrier strike groups patrolling the world’s
oceans and seas. The U.S. Navy is as large as the
world’s next thirteen biggest navies combined [1]. Washington has as many aircraft carriers as all
other nations together. Russia has one; China has
none. The U.S. and its NATO allies – Britain (2),
Italy (2), France (1) and Spain (1) – account for 17
of 22 in service in the world. Ten of the eleven
American carriers are Nimitz class nuclear-powered
supercarriers, substantially larger than most all non-U.S.
ones. The U.S. Navy has all ten supercarriers in the
world at the moment. [2] U.S. aircraft carriers contain 70-80 planes and are
available for deployment in all the world’s oceans and
most of its seas. They are escorted in their carrier
groups by anti-air and anti-submarine warfare guided
missile destroyers, anti-submarine warfare frigates,
missile cruisers with long-range Tomahawks, and
nuclear-powered fast-attack submarines. The U.S. also
maintains between ten and twelve naval expeditionary
strike groups which include amphibious assault ships
and AH-1 Super Cobra attack helicopters in addition to
destroyers, cruisers, frigates, attack submarines and
P-3C Orion long-range anti-submarine and maritime
surveillance aircraft. With the reestablishing of the Navy’s Fourth Fleet
– its area of responsibility includes Central and
South America and the Caribbean Sea – two years ago
after a 58-year hiatus, the U.S. has six fleets that
can be dispatched to all five oceans. The Seventh Fleet (there is no First Fleet), based
in Japan, is the largest of U.S. forward-deployed
fleets and consists of as many as 40–60 ships, 200-350
aircraft and 20,000-60,000 Navy and Marine Corps
personnel. Its area of responsibility takes in more
than 50 million square miles of the Pacific and Indian
Oceans, from Russia’s Kuril Islands in the north to
the Antarctic in the south, from the South China Sea
to the Arabian Sea, South Africa to the Korean
Peninsula, the Strait of Malacca to the Taiwan Strait.
When on the occasion of accepting the Nobel Peace
Prize last December President Barack Obama referred to
himself as the Commander-in-Chief of the world’s sole
military superpower he was not guilty of hyperbole if
he was of hubris. His defense budget for next year is
almost half as large as world military spending for
2008, the last year for which the Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute has compiled
figures. The U.S. has mutual defense treaties with six
nations in the Asia-Pacific area: Australia, Japan,
New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea and
Thailand. The Pentagon has bases in Japan and South
Korea, troops and base camps in the Philippines,
satellite surveillance sites in Australia and the use
of air bases in Thailand. Australia, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are
included in the American global missile interceptor
network with Patriot Advanced Capability-3 and
ship-based Standard Missile-3 deployments in those
four nations. Last December it was announced that the
U.S. will supply Taiwan with 200 Patriot
anti-ballistic missiles and the following month it was
revealed that Washington will also provide Taiwan with
eight frigates capable of being upgraded to fire
Standard Missile-3 interceptors. [3] Last week the head of the Missile Defense Agency,
Lieutenant General Patrick O’Reilly, told the U.S.
Congress that, as Reuters summarized it, “Japan
remains fully committed to building a linchpin
multibillion-dollar missile interceptor with the
United States,” despite hopes to the contrary
entertained after the Democratic Party of Japan’s
Yukio Hatoyama became prime minister last September. Referring to the current Standard Missile-3
enhancement program, O’Reilly said that Japanese
government officials “have indicated that they are in
full support and their commitments are solid.” In regards to the upgraded interceptor missile, the
SM-3 Block IIA, he added, “Within the next year, we
will begin our discussions on production arrangements
between the United States and Japan.” [4] On April 27 the U.S. renewed a military logistics
agreement with Australia “allowing deployed Australian
forces to exploit the vast logistics capability of the
American military” and permitting “U.S. forces on
operations to make use of Australian logistics.” “Since its inception, the agreement had ensured
supply support and services to Australian and U.S.
forces deployed to all parts of the world wherever
they were operating together….That included mutual
support during operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
[5] Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S.
Marine General James Cartwright, is visiting New
Zealand this week to consult with the country’s top
military commanders and defense minister. Cartwright is “the first vice-chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff to visit New Zealand since the
position was established….” [6] His visit comes two
weeks after NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, U.S.
Admiral James Stavridis, made similar trips to New
Zealand and Australia. Last month New Zealand’s Defence Minister Wayne
Mapp announced that joint military exercises with the
U.S. would resume after 23 years, since the nation’s
1987 ban on the docking of nuclear-powered warships
and submarines. New Zealand has been brought back into the fold in
part by providing NATO with over 200 troops for the
war in Afghanistan. Australia, with over 1,500
soldiers assigned to the International Security
Assistance Force in the nation, is the largest
non-NATO troop contributor for the war. Last year it
unveiled plans for the most extensive military buildup
in its post-World War Two history. [7] On April 23 the U.S. and India launched the ten-day
Malabar 2010 military exercises after “Ships,
submarines and aircraft from the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet
arrived in Goa” to engage in maneuvers which include
training for “surface and anti-submarine warfare,
coordinated gunnery exercises [and] air defense….” [8]
The U.S. contribution consists of two guided missile
destroyers, a guided missile frigate, a guided missile
cruiser, a nuclear fast-attack submarine, P-3 Orion
anti-submarine and surveillance aircraft, SH-60B
Seahawk helicopters and Navy SEAL (Sea, Air and Land)
special forces. The Malabar war games have been conducted jointly
by the U.S. and India since 1992 (except for 1998-2001
after India carried out nuclear tests), but last year
included Japan, and Malabar 2007 was a five-nation
operation held in the Bay of Bengal with the U.S. and
India joined by Australia, Japan and Singapore,
leading to suspicions of U.S. designs for an
Asia-Pacific analogue of NATO. As Malabar 2010 was underway, “warships, combat
aircraft and soldiers” from Australia, Britain,
Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore (all Commonwealth
nations) began Exercise Bersama Shield 2010 “on the
Malaysian peninsula and in the South China Sea.” [9] Malaysia is among a minority of maritime states not
to have joined the U.S.-launched Proliferation
Security Initiative (PSI) whose architect was then
U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and
International Security John Bolton. Established in
2003 as “a global effort that aims to stop trafficking
of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), their delivery
systems, and related materials to and from states and
non-state actors,” [10], it has grown to incorporate
over 90 of the world’s 148 coastal nations. [11] China, Indonesia and Malaysia have refused to join,
though South Korea did in May of last year, and the
first three countries along with Iran and North Korea
– the states used as justification for the PSI – view
the U.S.-led global surveillance, interdiction and
boarding operation with deep concern and doubts about
its legality, as it operates without a United Nations
mandate, can be argued to circumvent and violate
international maritime law, and in effect grants the
U.S. and its allies the self-arrogated right to
conduct piracy on the high seas. “Launched on May 31, 2003, U.S. involvement in the
PSI stems from the U.S. National Strategy to Combat
Weapons of Mass Destruction issued in December 2002.
That strategy recognizes the need for more robust
tools to stop proliferation of WMD around the world,
and specifically identifies interdiction as an area
where greater focus will be placed. President Obama
strongly supports the PSI. On April 5, 2009 in Prague,
the President called on the international community to
make PSI a ‘durable international institution.’” [12] The PSI has been effectively if not formally
extended into the Indian Ocean and the Horn of Africa
with the U.S.-run Combined Task Force 150 and Combined
Task Force 151 warship deployments. Recently the South
Korean navy assumed command of Combined Task Force 151
from Singapore. Combined Task Force 150 contributing
navies include those of the U.S., Britain, Australia,
Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand,
the Netherlands, Pakistan, Portugal, Singapore, Spain
and Turkey. Last week it was announced that NATO welcomed South
Korea as the 46th nation supplying it with troops for
the war in Afghanistan. On March 29 Mongolia became
the 45th. [13] Singapore also has troops serving under
NATO and until this year Japan was providing naval
support to the U.S. war effort there. On April 26 the China Daily reported that Rear
Admiral Yang Yi, formerly in charge of strategic
studies at the Chinese army’s National Defense
University, said, “The United States is the greatest
perceived threat to the People’s Liberation Army” and
that “the US was the only country capable of
threatening China’s national security interests in an
all-round way.” [14] Another Chinese news source on the same day wrote
of U.S. Prompt Global Strike (PGS) plans to be able to
strike any target on earth within sixty minutes and
the Pentagon’s recent test flights of the X-37B
orbital space plane and the Falcon hypersonic spy
plane, reporting that “Chinese space technology expert
Pang Zhihao said the spaceship…aids the PGS program,
which he said could be a potential threat to world
peace.” [15] The previous day London’s Sunday Times acknowledged
that “Obama’s interest in Prompt Global Strike
(PGS)…has alarmed China and Russia….” [16] U.S. fast strike and first strike global missile
and space strategy and its expansion of military
alliances and networks in the Asia-Pacific area are
rightly seen as threats to China and Russia. And to
international security and peace. 1) Measured by battle fleet tonnage. http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/u-s-china-military-tensions-grow 4) Reuters, April 21, 2010 http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/australian-military-buildup-and-the-rise-of-asian-nato 8) Navy Newsstand, April 23, 2010 http://www.state.gov/t/isn/c10390.htm 11) Proliferation Security Initiative And U.S.
1,000-Ship Navy: Control Of http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/proliferation-security-initiative-and-us-1000-ship-navy-control-of-worlds-oceans-prelude-to-war 12) U.S. Department of State, Ibid http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/03/31/mongolia-pentagon-trojan-horse-wedged-between-china-and-russia 14) China Daily, April 26, 2010 Comments 💬 التعليقات |