The Asia-Pacific region poses a host of challenges to the United States. The Pacific Fleet meets these challenges on a daily basis.
Asia-Pacific regional stability depends on the free and unrestricted flow of trade and commerce. Such access demands the presence of an agile, capable, and decisive naval force. Without question, that force is U.S. sea power.
In a region that covers more than half the planet and is home to more than 40 nations, 60% of the world's population, the six largest militaries in the world and four of the Unites States" top ten trading partners, the imperative for sea power is greater today than at any time since the end of the Cold War. The region's economic, political, and military potential is immense and its influence promises to grow well into this nascent "Pacific Century" as the global center of gravity shifts to Asia.
The 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) stated, "the lleet will have greater presence in the Pacific, con sistent with the global shift of trade and transport." This direction acknowledges the importance of regional mari time stability as it relates to national security and global prosperity. It is a powerful reminder of the integral role the U.S. Navy will play in supporting national objectives in the region.
As the naval component to U.S. Pacific Command, the Pacific Fleet is the primary instrument of U.S. sea power in the theater. To enhance regional security and prosperity, combat-ready forces are provided for naval, joint, and combined combat operations, and are employed in peacetime-tailored engagements with regional friends and partners. The Pacific Fleet focuses its efforts on four areas: warfighling readiness, force posture and positioning, regional engagement, and future concepts.
Warfighting Readiness
The Pacific Fleet, first and foremost, is focused on sustaining the readiness that leads to victory in combat and facilitates peace through strength and good will. It allows effective engagement across the entire spectrum of operations, from high-end warfighting and contingency response, to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations.
Pacific Fleet forces train constantly to win in combat, in the region and globally. The Terminal Fury, Northern Edge, and Joint Air Sea Exercise series is essential to maintaining combat readiness. In the summer of 2006, another joint exercise, Valiant Shield, will incorporate multiple carrier strike groups operating in the Western Pacific. This event is but another part of the continuum of training that maintains peak joint warfighting skills in complex scenarios.
Simultaneously, Pacific Fleet forces are engaged in the war on terror, stabilizing and rebuilding Iraq, and maintaining regional maritime security and stability. They are battling terrorists, pirates and international criminals in the Arabian Gulf, off the Horn of Africa, and in the archipelagic waters of the Philippines (in support of their armed forces).
Warfighting readiness is also about being forward-deployed in the Asia-Pacific theater. The Navy's Forward Deployed Naval Forces (FDNF) are a critical component of the Pacific Fleet. They are trained, ready, and lethal; and they directly enhance rapid and effective response to any regional contingency.
Force Posture and Positioning
The Pacific Fleet is positioned to facilitate rapid response to any contingency and to provide naval presence capable of influencing events and enhancing relationships. The QDR directly addressed the importance of Pacific Fleet force posture and positioning, calling for increased carrier and submarine presence.
Changes to meet this direction are already under way. Of great significance is the replacement of USS
Kitty Hawk (CV-63)-centerpiece of the FDNF-with the nuclearpowered USS George Washington (CVN-73), scheduled to occur in 2008. Later this year, the USS Vandegrift (FFG48) and USS Chancellorsville (CG- 62) will be relieved by the more-capable USS Mustin (DDG-89) and USS Shiloh (CG-67). Additionally, the recent conversion of four Ohioclass ballistic-missile submarines addressed the new security environment. The transformation of these submarines is extraordinary, incorporating extensive precision land-attack and unprecedented special-operations capability.As a result of these changes, the Pacific Fleet is more flexible and responsive to address a range of activities that are particularly important in the Asia-Pacific region: prosecution of the Global War on Terrorism, homeland defense, bilateral and multilateral exercises, security cooperation events, and deterrence.
Regional Engagement
Transnational criminal activities such as piracy, weapons proliferation, terrorism, and human and narco-trafficking threaten security and stability in the maritime domain and demand a collective response. Nowhere is that more important than in the Asia-Pacific region, where the establishment of a network of maritime nations will significantly enhance the ability of participants to cooperatively address common challenges and seize opportunities to enhance security in the region.
Regional engagement facilitates establishment of just such a network. This network is rooted in respect for national sovereignty, grounded in common interests, and committed to increasing maritime domain awareness through information-sharing in response to maritime security threats and the growing requirement for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. Many important relationships-such as those with Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, the Republic of the Philippines, Singapore, India. Malaysia, and Indonesia-already exist, are highly valued, and contribute much to the ongoing effort to enhance regional peace and stability. Fundamental to the establishment of a maritime network, the Pacific Fleet is heavily invested in strengthening these relationships through routine activities, exercises, and cooperation events such as the Cooperative Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT), South East Asian Cooperation Against Terrorism (SEACAT), Malabar, Cobra Gold. Foal Eagle, Tandem Thrust, and Balikatan exercises.
The importance of such relationships, particularly as they pertain to enhancing sea power in the Asia-Pacific region, cannot be overstated. Neither can the importance of taking advantage of opportunities to form new partnerships that facilitate regional stability and that allow for the maintenance of existing assurances and status-quo arrangements. The Military Maritime Consultative Agreement (MMCA) is one such effort currently under way. These talks are intended to increase transparency and decrease uncertainty and risk of miscalculation between the navies of the United States and China. Ideally, MMCA activities will contribute to China's peaceful rise in the region and will show it to be a responsible stakeholder in the maritime domain.
While most of today's regional activity is bilateral, the current security environment and the need for global maritime domain awareness demand a more cooperative approach. Multilateral search-and-rescue, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief exercises provide excellent opportunities to improve interoperability and increase trust among the region's naval forces. Effective multilateral engagement depends heavily on the ability to collaboratively share information, develop common operational pictures, and standardize operating procedures.
The Pacific Fleet is leading this endeavor to increase maritime domain awareness. The new fleet-sponsored Cooperative Maritime Forces Pacific (CMFP) enclave is a community of interest within the Combined Enterprise Regional Information Exchange System. It employs Internet-based protocols to make real-time information exchange possible among more than a dozen regional participants. CMFP and similar systems allow for the collective agility, response, and situational awareness among the navies of friends and allies that are critical to future cooperative efforts and to enhancing security in today's maritime environment.
Future Emphasis
Finally, the Pacific Fleet is focused on actively influencing the Navy's resource investment strategy to reflect future requirements. Specifically, the strategy is focused on globally-networked joint and combined force maritime operations, antisubmarine warfare (ASW), ballistic-missile defense (BMD), sea basing, maritime domain awareness and security, and the personnel strategy required for each mission.
While the Fleet works diligently in all these areas, great successes have recently been achieved in the development of BMD capability. Twice last year, an SM-3 missile launched from USS Lake Erie (CG-IG) successfully intercepted a ballistic-missile target launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii. These were the fifth and sixth such intercepts by the Aegis BMD Systems, the maritime component of the Missile Defense Agency's "Hit-to-Kill" BMD System. The suecess of this program in the Pacific illustrates the capability USS Shiloh now brings to the FDNF. That capability adds to our national security and allows our nation to better defend friends and allies against the threat to international peace and stability that nuclear proliferation poses.
More than 200 (140 diesel) submarines are in the AsiaPacific region. Given continued proliferation of submarines and associated technologies, the Fleet has renewed its commitment to ASW. As with BMD, the Pacific Fleet is actively advancing new and innovative efforts in this area. Regular training and exercises with regional partners and allies, to include extensive training with the Swedish diesel submarine Gotland, are particularly important to ensuring Fleet ASW assets are capable of dominating any submarine theat.
Waging War and Waging Peace
The aforementioned focus areas align the Pacific Fleet to respond to all contingencies and to enhance Asia-Pacific security and prosperity through the effective application of U.S. sea power. While the Pacific Fleet's most important role is to fight and win our nation's wars, it is not all about combat. Much of sea power is offensive in nature and designed to maximize the ability of naval forces to project combat power. Sea power, particularly in today's security environment, is also about access. Access allows the United States to project its message of peace and freedom from the sea.
There is no better example of this than the historic international disaster relief efforts in early 2005 in tsunamidevastated South and Southeast Asia. The response to this incomprehensible destruction was of immense proportions. It demonstrated the noteworthy effectiveness of international action by military forces, not in waging war, but in relieving human suffering and helping fellow human beings in need. Such military intervention after natural disasters has been witnessed in the Asia-Pacific on other occasions: Operation Sea Angel in response to the tsunami that thrashed Bangladesh in 1991 ; last year in Pakistan after a massive earthquake; and this past February in the Republic of the Philippines in response to the mudslides in Luzon.
The Pacific Fleet has long recognized the importance of civil-military interaction in the name of helping those in need within the region. Consequently, the hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH-19) recently began a five-month humanitarian-assistance deployment to the western Pacific. The effort builds on the success of other recent civil-action projects such as those conducted by USS Essex (LHD-2) expeditionary strike group personnel in the Republic of the Philippines and by naval construction forces in Indonesia. Working closely with friends, partners, and non-governmental organizations to provide focused assistance is essential to furthering existing relationships between the United States and nations in the region. It is also essential to fostering the conditions under which true freedom, peace, and stability thrive. Further, such action demonstrates the great benefit of agile, capable and decisive sea power.
The Asia-Pacific region is one of the most dynamic areas of our rapidly changing world. There are many challenges, but every challenge is an opportunity. By focusing on warfighting effectiveness, force posture and positioning, regional engagement, and future capabilities, the Pacific Fleet will enhance sea power in the Asia-Pacific region and assure stability, peace, and prosperity.
Admiral Roughead is commander, United States Pacific Fleet. He has served several tours in patrol gunboats, cruisers, and destroyers, and was the first naval officer to command both classes of Aegis guided-missile ships. Admiral Roughead has also served as Commandant, U.S. Naval Academy; commander, Striking Fleet Atlantic and U.S. Second Fleet; and most recently, deputy commander, U.S. Pacific Command.