Naval Power Projection

The projection of power is been an important capability for the US Navy. In any discussion of Naval power, an author usually starts a list by ranking the United States Navy #1, and the debate begins on who ranks number two through five. While such discussions are sometimes interesting, the reasonings always revolve around force projection, technology, ships, weapons, aircraft, and other tangibles that remove the human element.

The human element is critical to the discussion though, and power is not achieved through force alone. The concept of "soft power" almost never enters into the equation for naval power projection rankings, but it is a critical element to a peacetime Navy, as it can be the reason war never occurs in the first place.

Two deployments this year will demonstrate the rarely discussed aspect of power projection through "soft power." The first mission, Pacific Partnership 2007, consisting of the USS Peleliu (LHA 5) officially began on June 1st. represents 40,000 tons of "soft power" unique only to the US Navy in capability. No other nation in the world can deploy a ship with the same variety in capabilities, from a landing well for moving equipment to shore to a large landing deck able to support helicopters to a variety of locations simultaneously. Navy NewsStand describes the mission.

The four-month humanitarian mission will bring together host nation medical personnel, partner nation military medical personnel and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to provide medical, dental, construction and other humanitarian-assistance programs ashore and afloat in the Philippines, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and the Marshall Islands.

While not officially considered a Global Fleet Station, it is difficult to see where the same definition doesn't apply, nor how the ship doesn't provide a better capability for such a mission than the HSV Swift does today.

Later this month, the USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) will be deploying on a similar mission to South America. As a larger (70,000+ tons), dedicated hospital ship the USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) will make a considerable impact in South America, which is slowly becoming a volatile region and is in need of attention by the United States. While US warships have patrolled South America for years, those deployments have almost exclusively revolved around annual exercises and interdiction of drug trafficking. The "soft power" mission of the USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) is expected to make a considerable impact.

The Baltimore-based hospital ship’s doctors, nurses and support personnel expect to treat 85,000 patients and conduct up to 1,500 surgeries during its voyage, Bush said.

The USNS Comfort will depart in June and make port calls in Belize, Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia, Haiti, Trinidad, Tobago, Guyana and Suriname, Bush said.

I intend to track the USS Peleliu (LHA 5) humanitarian mission to the South Pacific and the USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) humanitarian mission to South America. As a nation, these deployments represent an important part of our Foreign policy, not only in regards to building relationships but also an important piece in our nations national security strategy.