A top US Navy admiral wants the powerful Third Fleet to expand its engagement in the Western Pacific from its headquarters in San Diego, California, by operating more closely with the Japan-based Seventh Fleet to focus on areas with the “greatest instability.”
In two recent speeches that received little media attention, US Pacific Fleet commander Admiral Scott Swift questioned the need for an administrative boundary running along the international date line to demarcate operations for the Seventh Fleet in the Western Pacific and the Third Fleet to the east.
In an early sign of a shift in strategy, US naval officials said Third Fleet commander Vice Admiral Nora Tyson rather than her Seventh Fleet counterpart would represent the US Navy at the Japanese fleet review on Oct. 18, a display of Japanese naval power held every three years.
“I would not be surprised to see more of Vice Admiral Tyson operating forward as part of this concept development process,” Swift said in a speech on Sept. 7 during a visit to Seventh Fleet headquarters in Yokosuka, Japan.
Any change would not mean the relocation of headquarters or home ports, but would allow the two fleets to work together in “areas with the greatest instability,” Swift said, without elaborating.
His remarks coincide with growing tension over China’s territorial ambitions in Asia’s disputed waters, especially in the South China Sea, where Beijing is building several artificial islands that include three airstrips.
Swift was away from his headquarters in Hawaii and not immediately available to comment, his office said.
A US Pacific Fleet naval official told reporters the idea was to scrap the administrative boundary, but that it was at the conceptual stage. He said the plan revolved around the Third Fleet “operating forward,” which is naval terminology for conducting patrols and missions in distant theaters.
It would formalize and expand the Third Fleet’s role in the Western Pacific from a command and control perspective, the official said on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
“We’re not sure how often or when that would manifest at this point,” he added.
When operating west of the international date line, Third Fleet’s vessels have typically come under Seventh Fleet command, US naval officials said.
They said closer integration between the two fleets was separate from US President Barack Obama’s “pivot” to Asia, which is to see 60 percent of the US Navy’s assets deployed in the Pacific by 2020.
Washington-based Center for a New American Security Asia security expert Mira Rapp-Hooper cautioned against reading too much into the move.
“The Third Fleet may become more present symbolically in the Asia-Pacific [region], but I am not sure that this has major strategic implications, say for the US-Japan relationship ... at least based on what I understand thus far,” Rapp-Hooper said.
The Seventh Fleet has the US’ only forward deployed aircraft carrier strike group, along with 80 other vessels, 140 aircraft and 40,000 sailors.
The Third Fleet has more than 100 vessels, including four aircraft carriers. It was formed in 1943 under the command of US Navy fleet admiral William Halsey to fight the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II. Japanese officials officially surrendered aboard its then flagship, the USS Missouri, just over 70 years ago.
In a speech on July 24 at Third Fleet headquarters in San Diego, Swift drew on that history.
“It is my intent to underscore the legacy of fleet admiral Halsey ... by enabling Vice Admiral Tyson to more fully employ her fleet forward,” he said. “I question why we are so allegiant to the international date line as a line of demarcation between the two most powerful numbered fleets in the world.”
Swift’s drive to integrate their operations comes as Japan pulls back from seven decades of state pacifism with the passage this month of legislation that will allow its navy to work more closely with its US counterpart.
A key feature of the new laws is an end to a ban on exercising the right of collective self-defense, or defending the US or another friendly country that comes under attack in cases where Japan faces a “threat to its survival.”
Extending the Third Fleet’s command to Asia would likely mean tighter cooperation between US naval commanders based in the Eastern Pacific and Japanese naval officers, who already work closely with the Seventh Fleet, the US Pacific Fleet naval official said.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
RSS