As the navies of India, the US, Australia and Japan are engaging in the ongoing ‘Malabar’ exercise in the Arabian Sea to enhance operational readiness and interoperability, the US Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite has announced for the establishment of a new ‘numbered’ fleet close to the border of the Indian and Pacific oceans.
At present aircraft carriers USS Nimitz of the US Navy and the Indian Navy’s INS Vikramaditya are engaged in the Malabar exercise that has expanded to an exercise between the QUAD to counter China’s attempt to dominate.
Navy Secretary Braithwaite made the comments at the US Naval Submarine League’s annual symposium on Tuesday (November 17).
The US Navy has the worlds largest fleets of modern destroyers, aircraft carriers and a nuclear submarines with the capability to deploy anywhere in the world at a moments notice.
The US Navy currently has a total of seven fleets, deployed across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, Mediterranean and Middle East regions.
These fleets designated by their numbers—for example, Fifth Fleet is headquartered in Bahrain and each fleet will have a combination of aircraft carriers, submarines and other surface ships as well as refuellers and logistical supply networks.
Kenneth Braithwaite was quoted by the US Naval Institute as saying, “We want to stand up a new numbered fleet. And we want to put that numbered fleet in the crossroads between the Indian and the Pacific oceans, and we’re really going to have an Indo-PACOM footprint. We can’t just rely on the Seventh Fleet in Japan. We have to look to our other allies and partners like Singapore, like India, and actually put a numbered fleet where it would be extremely relevant if, god forbid, we were to ever to get in any kind of a dust-up.”
Braithwaite emphasised the important roles of allies such as India and Singapore in the proposed plan that can be a much more formidable deterrence to China.
Braithwaite is scheduled to travel to India soon and the naval secretary said, “In the coming weeks he would be traveling to India to discuss both their security challenges and how the US Navy can uniquely help them, but also how India can help the US,.”
Braithwaite said it is not possible for the US alone to stand up to China and other nations around the Pacific and the Indian Ocean need to push back China both militarily and economically if they want deterrence to work.,” the US Naval Institute reported.
The need for a new numbered fleet in Indian and Pacific oceans is to reduce the strain on Seventh Fleet. A proposed First Fleet for the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean would allow more effective partnerships with regional partners such as India.
India already has signed the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), the renewed Defense Framework Agreement, and the Communications, Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) with the US.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on and President-Elect Joe Biden to congratulate him and both leaders reiterated firm commitment to the Indo-US strategic partnership and discussed shared priorities and concerns over the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, and cooperation in the Indo-Pacific Region.
However, Braithwaite who is a political appointee wants to push the idea of a new fleet for the Indian and Pacific oceans before his time at the Pentagon. In America, positions such as the Secretary of the Navy ends when new administration is sworn in in January. “Unfortunately, I don’t get a much longer stint in this seat… but I got 60 days to go out now and really grasp the bully pulpit,” Braithwaite was quoted as saying by Breaking Defense, a US publication.
During his interaction on Tuesday, Braithwaite highlighted the nature of the Chinese threat and said,”the Chinese have shown their aggressiveness around the globe… Chinese presence in the Arctic is unprecedented. Most recently, I was in a trip to the Far East: every single one of our allies and partners are concerned about how aggressive the Chinese have been. I would argue with anybody that not since the War of 1812 has the United States and our sovereignty been under the kind of pressures that we see today,” he was quoted as saying by the US Naval Institute.
