![]() ![]() This essay examines the historical evolution of U.S. In essence, it is difficult for a shrinking fleet to maintain combat-credible numbers and combinations of capable assets, and the growing scale and sophistication of counter-naval capabilities posed by China, Russia, and Iran threaten to hold forward-operating forces at risk, thus undermining their combat credibility and ability to carry out missions of presence, deterrence, reassurance, and warfighting. However, a range of domestic and international challenges has increasingly called into question the viability of this approach. Today, combat-credible naval forward presence is largely recognized as a key national advantage that helps defend American lives and property, protect allies, ensure the free flow of commerce, prevent the rise of a hegemon on the Eurasian continent, and help provide for the common good (to include not only humanitarian missions, but also the post–World War II global order of open trade, collective security, and adherence to international norms). Over time these forces were increasingly forward-based, usually in the territory of newly developed allies and partners, as well as forward-deployed, to allow the United States to maintain both permanent and intermittent presence in different areas of operation, or “hubs.” Since World War II, for political, geographic, and technological reasons, the United States has maintained major fleet elements forward. approach to forward presence fluctuated and largely involved small detachments, which were supported periodically in peacetime or reinforced in time of war by major fleet units. Forward operating naval forces have not, however, always been combat credible.īefore World War II, the U.S. Since the earliest days of the republic, American forces have operated forward in peacetime and wartime. Forward presence is a central element of U.S.
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