Thread: Admiral Warns U.S. Losing Pacific Dominance To China

Admiral Warns U.S. Losing Pacific Dominance To China

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Wed, Jan 22 2014 00:00:00 E A13_ISSUES
Posted 05:00 PM ET

Adm. Samuel J. Locklear, chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, warns of America's "diminishing dominance" in Pacific and elsewhere. View Enlarged Image

Power Shift: Despite the White House's much-lauded pivot to the Pacific, the Navy's Pacific commander warns that an increasingly hostile and assertive China threatens U.S. air and sea superiority in the region.
If jaws didn't drop, they should have last week when Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III, chief of U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM), said: "Our historic dominance that most of us in this room have enjoyed is diminishing, no question."
U.S. naval and air superiority, particularly in the Pacific, has been taken for granted. But as Obama administration budget cuts and the effects of sequestration take their toll, our position is being severely challenged by a Chinese military benefiting from years of double-digit spending increases and a commitment from Beijing to push the U.S. out of the area.
Locklear noted the regional power shift at the annual Surface Navy Association conference in Virginia.
"We need to think about all scenarios, not just the ones we've been dealing with over the last several years, where we've enjoyed basic air superiority and basic sea superiority," he said. "There are places in the world where in this century we won't have them."
The irony is that this warning of the U.S. losing its Pacific dominance comes after the administration announced its plans for a Pacific pivot that de-emphasizes commitments in Europe and elsewhere.
President Obama pledged on Jan. 5, 2012, that his strategy would put more military muscle in Asia. The goal is to have about 60% of Navy ships dedicated to the Pacific by 2020. Of 11 active aircraft carriers, six would be committed to the region.
But these are not the heady days of President Reagan's 600-ship navy that helped buttress his strategy of "we win, they lose." Neither that Navy nor that strategy is in play anymore as the U.S. fleet dwindles from attrition while China rapidly expands its navy and develops weapons to counter ours.
One of these weapons is the Dong Feng-21D missile, intended to give China "the capability to attack large ships, particularly aircraft carriers, in the western Pacific," the Pentagon's 2012 China report said. The paper cites estimates that the missile's range exceeds 930 miles (1,500 kilometers).
Coincidentally, China's defense ministry last Wednesday announced the test of a hypersonic glide vehicle, dubbed the WU-14, designed to evade U.S. missile and other defense systems, such as the Aegis sea-based missile shield guarding our Pacific fleet and carrier battle groups.
China's Communist Party-affiliated newspaper, Global Times, gloated over Locklear's warning, noting his remarks in a story beneath the headline "U.S. losing grip on Pacific: PACOM."
In the Times story, Jin Canrong, a deputy dean of the School of International Studies at Renmin University of China, said the American admiral's comments recognize China as a rising military power. Indeed, it is. China has launched its first stealth drone, known as Sharp Sword, and is developing indigenous aircraft carriers. Its "two-ocean strategy" is based on the goal of building a fleet of five or six carrier battle groups.
China's first battle group, led by its first carrier, the Liaoning, recently conducted a monthlong exercise that saw the refurbished Soviet-built flattop and her escorts sail south to the waters near Taiwan. During the exercise, a Chinese warship nearly collided with the guided missile cruiser USS Cowpens, which was shadowing the battle group.
China recently declared an Air Defense Identification Zone encompassing the Japanese Senkaku islands. While we sent two B-52s through the zone without asking permission, the administration also advised U.S. airlines to comply with China's demands and file their flight plans with Beijing in advance.
These days are eerily reminiscent of the 1920s and 1930s, when Imperial Japan built carrier fleets while we signed naval disarmament treaties. Our ability to dominate is diminishing, and so is our will.

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Obama’s systematic dismantling of our military strength: now it’s the Pacific

Written by Allen West on January 23, 2014

Two years ago, the Obama administration made a strategic posture decision to shift military focus from the Middle East to the Pacific Rim. In doing so we have seen a complete collapse of US influence in the Middle East and the destabilization of Libya, support to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, a power vacuum created in Iraq, a horrific civil war in Syria, the empowerment and resurgence of Islamic terror groups including al-Qaida, and a very troubling agreement with Iran.

All of this has resulted in a far more dangerous neighborhood for our best ally in the Middle East, Israel, who just foiled an al-Qaida plot to attack our Embassy in Tel Aviv. So does this mean we’re making better gains in the Pacific? Hardly.

According to the Washington Times,

The Obama administration’s ballyhooed military “pivot” to Asia is running into some frank talk from the top U.S. commander in the Pacific. Three years after the Pentagon said it was de-emphasizing Europe in favor of the Asia-Pacific region, Navy Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III said this week that U.S. dominance has weakened in the shadow of a more aggressive China. “Our historic dominance that most of us in this room have enjoyed is diminishing, no question.”

China has flexed its muscles in a number of ways:

• > Territorial disputes with US ally Japan over the Senkaku Islands
• > The creation of an air defense zone requiring foreign civilian and military aircraft to notify Chinese authorities of flight plans and even cargo
• > Testing of ultra-high-speed missile vehicle potentially capable of challenging US Pacific operations
• > Testing of a hypersonic glide vehicle
• > An intentional confrontation initiated by the Chinese Navy that could have caused a collision with a US Navy Cruiser warship, as we reported here

Admiral Locklear conceded,

We need to think about all scenarios, not just the ones we’ve been dealing with over the last several years where we’ve enjoyed basic air superiority and basic sea superiority. There are places in the world where in this century we won’t have them.

On January 5, 2012 President Obama pledged his strategy would put more military muscle into Asia saying, “We will be strengthening our presence in the Asia Pacific region, and budget reductions will not come at the expense of that critical region.”
Okay, but those words are pretty empty when we’re shrinking our naval capacity just as China is expanding theirs.
And so it goes, it’s not just the intentional destruction of America’s economic and domestic standing. The Obama administration seems more enamored with allowing beards and turbans in the military than securing our national interests and bolstering our allies’ confidence in our commitments.
I know many have an isolationist perspective when it comes to foreign policy and national security. But never forget that the number one responsibility per the Constitution for the federal government is to “provide for the common defense.”
In a world of despots, dictators, theocrats, and autocrats, the best tool to preclude militaristic adventurism is a military deterrent. The Obama administration is destroying that tool and endangering our nation.


Tags: China, Navy http://allenbwest.com/2014/01/obamas...h-now-pacific/