US naval cmdr. seeks wider fleet presence in western Pacific
A senior US Navy commander says America’s Third Fleet should expand its presence in the Western Pacific to deal with regional “instability.”
The US Pacific Fleet Commander, Admiral Scott Swift, believes the Third Fleet should increase its activities from its headquarters in San Diego by operating more closely with the Japan-based Seventh Fleet to focus on areas with the "greatest instability".
Admiral Swift has recently talked about 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, Reuters reported.
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 America’s worries over China's activities in Asian waters, especially in the South China Sea, where Beijing is building seven artificial islands that include three airstrips.
A US Pacific Fleet naval official told Reuters 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.
When operating west of the International Date Line, the 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 will see 60 percent of the US Navy's assets deployed in the Pacific region by 2020.
The Seventh Fleet has America's 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.
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