Global Fleet Stations Forever

When we observe the Navy discussing Global Fleet Stations, the mission objective profile is one of a mission without end. Instead the mission will transition from one phase to another, and the next phase of both the the Caribbean region Global Fleet Station and the African Partnership Station in the Gulf of Guinea region. Admiral Stevenson discussed the next 4th Fleet region Global Fleet Station (PDF) at the last blogger round table discussion.

This year we have a Global Fleet Station. That's a diving platform. That deploys this summer and will go into a majority of the Caribbean countries and do an awful lot of diving, training, port security, harbor protection type of things. And the following year, even later on in the fall, we may get Swift back, before her contract with the Navy ends, to continue some of the things that we started last year.

The diving ship being deployed is the USNS Grasp (T-ARS 51), an interesting choice. As a Global Fleet Station ship we observe the ship doesn't bring a lot of berthing, raising the question whether another ship will also be involved (probably via charter). Still, we see the Navy leveraging the MSC in this role as very wise, a way to sustain engagement with regional partners in a way that is clearly relevant to those regional nations.

The next phase in the Gulf Of Guinea will also look different this summer. While I haven't seen confirmation anywhere else yet, back in March Zachary M. Peterson reported for Inside The Navy (subscription only) that plans are already in motion for sustaining the African Partnership Station as well.

A Coast Guard cutter, Dallas, will deploy to the Gulf of Guinea this summer and plans for a French ship to steam in the region with embedded U.S. Navy training teams are also under way, he noted.

“APS doesn’t end when Fort McHenry [and Swift] go home,” Nowell argued. Adm. Mark Fitzgerald, commander of Naval Forces Europe, has said that the Navy is “here to stay” in West African waters, but details of how engagements in the region will fold into the nascent U.S. Africa Command remain to be determined, the captain said.

Zachary Peterson had another article on Tuesday in Inside The Navy that hit on the subject again. It was picked up in the CHINFO Clips.

This fall, the sea service plans to further efforts to build naval and coast guard capacity in coastal Western African countries by deploying a “variety of delivery platforms” ranging from frigates to destroyers and P-3 maritime surveillance aircraft detachments to the region, Capt. John Nowell, commodore of Task Force 365 (focused on West and Central Africa) and Destroyer Squadron Six Zero, said in a telephone interview April 21.

“Next year we expect another amphibious ship, probably the Nashville (LPD-13), to continue to conduct a similar mission to what we did with Fort McHenry (LSD-43),” Nowell said...

Guess that answers the questions regarding the USS Nashville (LPD 13) sale to India. The article goes on to note that blue water naval forces aren't always the best tools for the region though.

The APS effort incorporates a wide variety of projects in the region and is not specifically tied to gray-hull ships, Rear Adm. Anthony Kurta, director of policy, resources and strategy for Naval Forces Europe, said in a telephone interview April 23.

“There will be activity [in West Africa] under the APS banner for the next sixto-eight months,” Kurta noted.

These activities include the deployment of the Coast Guard cutter Dallas (WHEC-716) this summer and ongoing deployments of training teams throughout the region.

Phase 1 is an Amphibious Ship and a HSV. while phase 2 includes a MSC vessel and a Coast Guard Cutter. Admiral Clarke used to talk about using existing platforms and capabilities in new and innovative ways, we observe Global Fleet Stations and the resources being committed fits that description well. While the capabilities utilized for Global Fleet Stations are not new, the approach is innovative, a trend in ideas for the maritime domain that reflects a 4GW world.

Riverine Squadron 3 Deploys to Iraq

Riverine Squadron 3 represents the third riverine unit to deploy to Iraq since last March. It is good to see this capability back in the Navy.

The Navy stopped active-duty inland and coastal patrols after Vietnam. Last year, they reclaimed the mission, taking over river patrols for an overburdened Marine Corps.

On Sunday, about 150 sailors from Riverine Squadron 3 left for Iraq - the third unit to deploy since last March. Jordan left the command Monday in a ceremony at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base.

Jordan started the group a little more than two years ago with a few dozen sailors and borrowed office space. Thirteen months into the mission, the squadrons have conducted 800 combat operations with more than 200 shoreline sweeps, discovering nearly 100 weapons caches. They have worked with Iraqi forces, with the goal of training them to take over the patrols in western al Anbar province.

Then the article reminds us that the Navy still has some work to do to improve this capability.

The Cold War strategy of warships battling in deep seas needs to be supplemented by a force than can secure harbors, ports and rivers, Tillotson said. “We need to be there,” he said.

Petty Officer 3rd Class David Smith came straight from advanced training into the first squadron. Smith, an engine mechanic, said the new squadron had to come to terms with worn equipment and a new mission.

We like that the Navy has taken a slow approach to reestablishment for riverine. It has to be built, and there should be deployments before major investment to get a feel for what is needed, and desired, to enhance the capability. However, the Navy should start increasing a budget commitment beginning in FY10 or FY11 if the Navy is serious about the riverine capability. Considering both years will likely be tight budgets, the discussion needs to begin now in Congress. Clearly riverine isn't expensive compared to building warships, but in tight budgets even small sums get hard to come by.

We believe the future riverine forces will require integration with the blue water forces, specifically we believe LPD-17 well deck deployment capability will be very important. It is noteworthy Nigeria is of the most strategically important energy sources for the United States, and is also a River Delta. With the insurgency bubbling in that region, which is also the top region in the world regarding piracy, the Navy needs to be looking sooner rather than later for budget investments in riverine forces, because it needs to be available when called upon.

5th Fleet Focus: Restless Nights Approaching

I get the impression something like this can give certain people a restless nights sleep. While the 5th Fleet will be losing a CSG soon, they are getting an interesting upgrade as well.

KINGS BAY, Ga. (April 26, 2024) The guided-missile submarine USS Florida (SSGN 728) departs Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay for its first operational deployment after undergoing conversion from a ballistic-missile capable submarine (SSBN) to a guided-missile submarine (SSGN). The normal patrol for an SSBN is about three months; however, as an SSGN, Florida will be deployed for approximately 12 months. Florida departed with her blue crew, led by Capt. William Traub. The blue crew will rotate duties every three months with the gold crew, led by Capt. John Litherland, during the deployment. The use of two crews allows Florida to have a greater forward presence and the conversion from ballistic missiles to guided missiles allows for greater payload capacity and mission flexibility. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kimberly Clifford (Released)

Click image for link and Hi-res.

Clearly this is the stuff conspiracy theories are made of. One point though, with DDS the SSGN loses some Tomahawk capability, so if I was estimating, if she has a full load figure between 98 and 112 cruise missiles. When the Navy opened up the USS Ohio (SSGN 726) to the press earlier this year, it was implied the submarine had 105 cruise missiles aboard.

Somalian Pirates Back To Sea

We mentioned on Saturday to expect the pirate activity to pick up quickly, as they usually do after ransoms are paid. Be wary of speedboats if your in the Gulf of Aden. There were two new incidents on Monday, and it looks like the Italian Navy assisted in the first incident.

The Italian Navy appears to have prevented another pirate attack on commercial shipping in the Gulf of Aden over the weekend, after the 2004-built, 32,300-dwt bulk carrier Africa Ibis called for help in warding off a group of five speedboats which were approaching the vessel.

The Italian ship was the ITS Commandante Borsini (P491). The second incident off Somalia involved a South Korean bulk carrier.

In another incident in the Gulf of Aden, off Somalia, a South Korean bulk carrier came under pirate attack on Monday at about 0940 GMT, he said.

Choong said pirates believed to be from Somalia attacked the ship for about 40 minutes with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

"The ship was hit by a rocket and bullets," he said, adding that the captain took evasive measures "to prevent the 10 pirates in two speed boats from boarding," he said.

Choong said the ship was still sailing to its destination in Europe despite the damage suffered in the attack.

In observing the piracy off the Horn of Africa, it is pretty clear how little respect the pirates have for the presence of coalition forces. Given pirates are running around in speedboats with RPGs and Machine Guns, they also have a fairly sophisticated intelligence network too, because it is worth noting how often they attack 'close' to coalition ships, but never close enough to be hunted at sea until after they hijack a ship.

They will attack again over the next few days. One thing we are observing is the Somalia pirates appear to be going after larger ships lately. They haven't had success yet, but they are shooting up a number of large commercial ships on a weekly basis. Insurance rates will soon be going up, which means shipping costs will increase, which means we will soon be paying even more for the stuff we import. If the pirates strike at or even steal a tanker with fuel onboard, expect gas prices to jump big like they did when the pirates attacked the empty Japanese tanker.

4th Fleet Green Water Strategy

Today, I observed the winds of change. In today's blogger roundtable, SteelJaw Scribe was unable to attend, but he had submitted his questions and it was read anyway. The response captured the various angles of 4th Fleets Green Water Strategy.

Q: "With the decline of the supporting infrastructure in the region and the closure of naval stations Roosevelt Roads and Rodman, et cetera, how sustainable do you see the Fourth Fleet's small unit presence in the AOR, particularly outside the Caribbean?"

A: I would think that if you do an analysis of the countries -- I mean, 15 years ago, there wasn't any democracies in Central or South America, period. And this year, if you look, you'll see just about all democracies with the exception of one and a couple that are very, very far left. But that is the good thing. And the good thing about that is that they welcome the United States into their ports, and so the at-sea sustainment really isn't an issue.

However, if you look at, you know, the capabilities that the United States have -- has if you have have a big-deck amphibious ship, if you have aircraft carriers, if you have high-speed vessels, then essentially you can kind of have your own afloat staging base, where, you know, acting as mother ships and can refuel ships, and we can maintain our presence down here, and we can maintain our cooperation through exercises and training venues and what have you.

So I think it's dependent, and I think that's the huge value that our Navy brings in some of its core competencies, which is its forward presence and the ability to sail anywhere, any time and sustain itself.

(PDF Transcript)

Our initial impressions of the Navy standing up 4th Fleet was one in the context of leadership and strategy. After participating in today's blogger roundtable on the subject, I think our instincts on this was right. Rear Adm. James Stevenson is very impressive, after speaking with him I admit a bit of frustration that he is retiring, and hope that in his next profession he finds a useful medium to articulate his strategic ideas regarding leveraging the Sea as Base as clearly as he did today. The strategic vision for naval Sea Basing he discussed during the roundtable regarding operations for the 4th Fleet could have been ripped right from the content of this blog, and there were a few times that I had a huge cheesy grin on my face listening to him speak.

Based on our observations of previous deployments for SOUTHCOM, the leadership style and priorities of Adm. Stavridis, and the appointment of Rear Adm. Joseph Kernan, we believe 4th Fleet is about to execute a very unique Green Water Strategy that may serve as a model for peacetime strategy in the 21st Century. Adm. Stevenson continuously highlighted the value of amphibious forces during today's roundtable, but when speaking of them in an operational context outlined the strategic value they bring to peacetime operations. With access to regional ports, with good relations with many regional neighbors, 4th Fleet is taking an engagement approach across the spectrum ranging from security cooperation to proactive humanitarian impact while it deals with the low end naval requirements of dealing with illicit trafficking.

The engagement by the US Navy to the 4th Fleet AOR is well known historically for response to natural disasters. Whether hurricanes, mudslides, earthquakes, forest fires, or flooding; the 4th fleet AOR brings a range of peacemaking challenges to the Navy to be responsive in peacetime. The value of amphibious forces for meeting these challenges was continuously articulated by Adm. Stevenson.

While this sounds good, we foresee some major challenges in execution here. We do not believe the Navy will be able to sustain forward deployed amphibious ships to 4th Fleet, there simply aren't enough amphibious ships to do that. We would also note that every metric Adm. Stevenson listed regarding why he likes amphibious ships is virtually every metric the Littoral Combat Ship doesn't offer for peacetime missions in the future. In that context, we see the 4th fleet strategy having well defined ends and ways but lacking the means either presently or in the future to execute strategy. It will be interesting to observe how the Navy addresses that issue, or even recognizes it as an issue before it is too late to do something about it.

During the roundtable the only issue discussed that really bothered me is that 4th Fleet is commanded by a 2-star billet, not a 3-star billet like other fleets. I missed this during the announcement, and I think that decision sends the wrong message. It is something that should be addressed, although I think there may be a Congressional requirement for that. It doesn't make sense to elevate a peacetime strategy to equal levels of wartime strategy as stated in 21st Century Seapower, stand up a new fleet with the peacetime strategic purpose in mind, and then fall short in equality for leadership billets. Consistency is important, and when there is evidence of a lack of consistency in regards to maritime strategy, in serves only to weaken the strategy.

4th Fleet represents the first major decision for CNO Roughead, as all other major initiatives have been inherited. While we think the decision to go 2-star is one in need of correction, we see the establishment of 4th Fleet as positive for the Navy. We believe the strategic vision 4th Fleet will execute for peacetime sustained presence and engagement will be quite different than what is traditionally associated with the deployment of naval forces to other regions, and will be more evident compared to the token SOUTHCOM deployments of the past. We look forward to observing the strategy for leveraging maritime forces in what is primarily a green water operational theater, and believe we will get a good early peek into the strategic vision for 4th Fleet this summer as hurricane season approaches.

There was some other news from the roundtable, including Unitas Gold (50) next year being hosted off the Jacksonville coast, the next Global Fleet Station to South America using a diving ship as a platform, and more information regarding the Kearsarge/Boxer deployments to South America. We got the impression the Kearsarge deployment will be timed with Hurricane season in mind prepared to respond to any potential disaster zones. In all it was an interesting conversation.