US reactivates 2nd fleet to rival Russia in North Atlantic ‘great power competition’
RT,
4 April, 2018
In a major realignment
from fighting terrorism to great power rivalry with Russia, the US
Navy is re-establishing its Second Fleet. The command had been
responsible for the North Atlantic Ocean before it was deactivated in
2011.
Chief of Naval Operations
(CNO) Admiral John Richardson made the announcement on Friday, during
a change of command ceremony in Norfolk, Virginia.
“Our National Defense
Strategy makes clear that we're back in an era of great power
competition as the security environment continues to grow more
challenging and complex,” Richardson said. “That's why today,
we're standing up Second Fleet to address these changes, particularly
in the north Atlantic.”
Our NDS makes clear that we're back in an era of great power competition as the security environment continues to grow more challenging and complex. That's why today, we're standing up 2nd Fleet to address these changes, particularly in the north Atlantic: navy.mil/submit/display…
Richardson was referring
to the strategy drafted by Defense Secretary James Mattis and
published in January. It envisions a leaner, meaner Pentagon, more
oriented towards state adversaries such as Russia and China.
Once a major naval
command, covering both the northern and the southern Atlantic, the
Second Fleet was stood down in 2011, and its remaining personnel,
assets and responsibilities merged into US Fleet Forces (USFF) in
Norfolk. Reactivation of the Second Fleet was one of the
recommendations in the recent report on problems plaguing the US
Seventh Fleet in the Pacific.
The revived command will
be stood up on July 1, and will initially have eleven officers and
four enlisted personnel. That staff will eventually expand to 85
officers, 164 enlisted and seven civilians, according to the US Naval
Institute.
.@USNavy Reestablishes U.S. 2nd Fleet to Face Russian Threat; Plan Calls for 250 Person Command in Norfolk -- USNI Newsnews.usni.org/2018/05/04/nav…
The revamped Second Fleet
will focus solely on the North Atlantic, as the south was assigned to
the Fourth Fleet in 2008. And in that vast blue expanse, there is
only one potential foe: Russia.
“Russian submarines are
prowling the Atlantic, testing our defenses, confronting our command
of the seas, and preparing the complex underwater battlespace to give
them an edge in any future conflict,” Vice Admiral James Foggo III,
commander of the US 6th Fleet, wrote in 2016. Foggo is now the
commander of US naval forces in Europe and Africa.
Russian nuclear subs
quietly reached US coast & left undetected – Navy officer
Though smaller than in
the days of the Soviet Union, the modernized Russian Navy has
demonstrated previously unknown capabilities over the past several
years. It confirmed some of Foggo’s fears in March, when it was
made public that several of its nuclear submarines had approached the
east coast of the US and departed undetected, as part of a regular
exercise.
Russian navy ships and
submarines have also taken part in the fighting against Islamic State
(IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists in Syria since October 2015,
firing cruise missiles and delivering supplies through the Syrian
ports of Tartus and Latakia. The most notable naval deployment was in
November 2016, featuring the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov and
the heavy missile cruiser Pyotr Veliky (Peter the Great), the largest
ship of her class in the world. In June 2017, Moscow announced it
would keep a 15-ship task force in the Eastern Mediterranean,
operating out of Syria.
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