The US military has been steadily increasing its activity in the Indo-Pacific to counter China, and the US Navy is looking to expand its presence in the region on a more permanent basis.
“We can’t just rely on the Seventh Fleet in Japan,” Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite said on Tuesday at a virtual event hosted by the Naval Submarine League. “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,” he said. “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 get in any kind of a dust-up.”
Braithwaite said he hasn’t spoken with the new acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller about the plan yet, but said he’s “crossed all the other T’s and dotted all the other I’s.” The Navy chief said the new fleet would be called the “First Fleet” and could be based in Singapore.
Braithwaite said the US could not stand up to China on its own in the region and stressed the importance of building alliances in the region. He said he would be traveling to India next week to discuss the plan with New Delhi. In October, the US signed a new defense pact with New Delhi to give India access to satellite data to increase the accuracy of its missiles and drones.
The US, Japan, Australia, and India are currently participating in the Malabar exercises, annual naval drills held near India’s coast. The four countries form the informal alliance known as the Quad, a group some US officials are hoping to turn into a more formal security alliance. This year marks the first time the Quad held military exercises together in over a decade.
In previous years, India has been cautious about letting Australia participate in the exercises for fear of sending the wrong message to China. But with tensions high between New Delhi and Beijing over a border dispute in the western Himalayans that turned deadly this summer and a more hostile US posture towards China, the Quad countries joined together for a show of force off India’s coast.
since the chinese people refuse to stand up to The party and demand freedom, they deserve to die on their knees like the cowards they are before the communist cancer spreads . a good sino dna specific bio weapon will cure the sickman of Asia once and for all
Are you serious? China was one of the first great civilizations in the World – a billion of them are not about to die off.
And communism – I am old enough to remember my Mom scolding me over a half-eaten dinner plate – “Eat your food, Son – starving people in China would fight over what you are leaving – (that was when China was a corrupt semi-feudal, private enterprise mess – communism lifted them up to comfortable middle class status).
And I doubt that as they are fellow human beings, there can be any “Sino DNA specific bio weapons” – COVID -19 sure proved that notion wrong.
Great reply!!!!
Feedom…????? There is no absolute freedom, thank G-d. No one is safe if every maniac is free to do anything they want, especially to others. The types of freedom that count for something exist to a greater or lesser extent in most prosperous states. I have no ideal what freedoms you are getting upset and talking genocide about. Do you want to kill your neighbors and pimp their kids, be able to smoke in the bar or keep a machine gun under your bed?
You poor dear. What do you think freedom means? The USA is on its last legs and China is the only nation now with economic growth and not overrun by covid-19, joblessness, homelessness, poverty and violence.
How much do you really know about communism???
This really is almost a joke. Has the USA not even noticed the new trade agreement in the Asia-Pacific involving 15 countries, including Australia, NZ, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, but not the India of Modi. The USA seems to continue to use force and no brains, and this is not a successful tactic with China which is way ahead of the declining USA by using cooperation and development, not violence and sanctions.
We are out of our minds, China is not threatening the US, we are threatening China and giving China no choice but to defend itself. Are we insane, or confused or just plain wickedly evil, do we not realize that we are on a one way road to Hell, that China will not surrender. I think we are on a guilt trip, we used Nukes on Japan and we know that we got it coming, payback, so in our cowardice we feel are only choice is to run a bluff like we want a war while in reality we tremble tremble tremble
A new numbered fleet?
Our worldwide military is so out of control that we are running out of numbers.
Gonna get Singapore to help. A postage stamp sized state? Like sending a house fly to attack a wolf, or maybe an elephant. Who thinks this stuff up? One low yield thermo would totally cancel their ticket, take them totally out! Population 2020….5,850,342. .08% of the planet”s population.
Its not really a fleet, just another large headquarters to suck up manpower while ships are short of crewmen. A 4th fleet was created just a few years ago that does the same. More command spots for Admirals.