NEWS THIS WEEK
“Concerned about the Navy retiring ships early, senators consider higher standards” (DefenseNews): In response to the Navy’s request to decommission seven cruisers and four littoral combat ships in the 2022 fiscal year (FY22), the Senate Armed Services Committee has included stricter criteria for the Navy to retire ships before the end of their expected service life in the FY22 NDAA. The House Armed Services Committee included in its version of the NDAA a provision to fund the maintenance and operations of three of the cruisers, allowing the other ships to retire. These provisions, presumably aimed at financial accountability, clash with the Navy’s need to reconcile its budget constraints and modernization goals.
The Navy must currently make hard decisions between maintaining legacy platforms and positioning itself as a high-tech maritime force worthy of great power competition. The Navy’s efforts to modernize its cruisers have had questionable returns, and the operation of platforms that it has determined no longer serve U.S. maritime strategy restricts funding towards other, more pressing, objectives. In light of the growing maritime challenge posed by China, much concern has been raised about the strategic and literal “bankruptcy” of the Navy.
Holding onto ships that do not best serve operational and strategic objectives will directly affect JOs. In line with the inclinations of the SASC and HASC, the Navy has tried to extend service life from 30 to 35 years for its ships, which often results in aging ships being sidelined during deployments due to emergency maintenance issues. These maintenance issues take away from other, more operationally-focused tasks JOs deal with during deployments. Presumably, retiring some of these outdated vessels could free up JOs for other commands, including those working on emerging technologies. Instead of gaining exposure and familiarity with updated vessels or technologies that would be useful should competition turn to conflict, JOs are stuck performing maintenance on ships that are unlikely to be useful for tomorrow’s national security challenges.
Still, there are real concerns about decommissioning these vessels, particularly if the U.S. expects to find itself in hot conflict in the next 5 to 10 years. There are trade-offs between readiness and modernization given that vessels the Navy hopes to retire early can require emergency maintenance that derails deployments. The national security community, the Hill, and the White House have aligned on the need to take seriously China’s increasingly assertive behavior and military prowess. To do so, it's obvious the U.S. government should invest in the Navy of tomorrow -- both financially and with manpower -- and holding onto aging and strategically irrelevant vessels restricts its ability to do so.
“Why Merkel’s Exit Matters Beyond Germany” (Washington Post): Angela Merkel will not seek another term as Chancellor of Germany. After sixteen years in leadership, Merkel will leave office best remembered for her management of crises, from the global economic recession of 2008 to the Syrian refugee crisis in 2015 to the COVID-19 pandemic. As she departs, it remains to be answered who the next de facto leader of the European Union will be, whether Germany will continue to be a global moderator between China, Russia, and the West, and if the new German government will prioritize NATO. Currently, French President Emmanual Macron is seeking to fill the vacuum that Merkel is leaving behind.
“China Sends Jets and Bombers Near Taiwan as Beijing Opposes Island’s Trade Deal Bid” (The Guardian): On Thursday, Taiwan announced that it has applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the region’s biggest free-trade pact, currently signed by 11 countries, including Australia, Japan, and Canada. In firm opposition to Taiwan’s membership in the trade agreement, China sent 24 aircraft, including 18 fighter jets and two bombers into the island’s air defense identification zone. “We firmly oppose any country having official exchanges with Taiwan and firmly oppose the Taiwan region’s accession to any official treaties or organizations,” said a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman. China has also recently applied to join the CPTPP, but neither China nor Taiwan are likely to gain membership in the near future, as membership must be unanimously agreed upon by the pact’s current members. The increased political and economic tension is now manifesting in larger military shows of force; while it is not entirely unusual for Chinese aircraft to enter Taiwanese air defense space, Thursday’s intrusion was the largest since June 2021.
IN DEFENSE NEWS
“Congress is Locked in a Familiar Standoff that Could Have Big Economic Consequences” (NPR): The ever-increasing national debt has been a permanent headline in the U.S. for the last few decades, and America has not been debt-free since the 1830s. In what seems like a tradition as deeply ingrained in American culture as football on Thanksgiving, Congress is deadlocked in its effort to pass a budget for the next fiscal year. This deadlock is largely due to the need to increase the debt ceiling, a move supported by most Democrats and opposed by most Republicans. While many aspects of the budget are topics of political debate, other essential aspects -- funding for public schools, FEMA, wages for federal employees -- get caught in the crosshairs. In the event of a government shutdown, service members should be prepared for possible delays in receiving payment.
“Coast Guard Encountered Chinese Warships in the Aleutians in August ” (Alaska Public Media): While the South China Sea receives high levels of attention when the Navy conducts freedom of navigation operations, China recently conducted their own freedom of navigation operation by sailing into the U.S. Economic Exclusion Zone within the Bering Sea in late August. The Coast Guard reported that the PLA Navy task force -- consisting of a guided missile cruiser, a guided missile destroyer, an intelligence vessel, and an auxiliary vessel -- were shadowed by the USCG Cutter BERTHOLF 46 miles off Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. Competition with China has many fronts, some of which do not as easily make national headlines.
“Biden and Macron agree to meet next month in push to repair ties” (Al Jazeera): On Wednesday, President Biden and President Macron of France spoke by phone and agreed to meet at the end of October to repair relations following a diplomatic tiff. Last week, France recalled its ambassadors to the U.S and Australia over a security agreement between the U.S., U.K. and Australia that includes a plan for Australia to acquire nuclear powered submarines, which scuttled a lucrative French contract to provide Australia with non-nuclear submarines. Paris announced that the French ambassador to the U.S. will return to Washington next week. Plans are in place for Australia to build eight submarines in a move to tighten relations with the U.S. and counter Chinese influence in the region.
A LONG READ FOR YOUR WEEKEND
“The Really Big One” (The New Yorker) by Kathryn Schulz.
This article from July of 2015 proves just as powerful now as it did seven years ago. Written four years after the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami, Kathryn Schulz put together a deeply researched and absorbing piece about a threat you may not have considered: a major earthquake striking the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Schulz explains the complex seismology of the Cascadia subduction zone in incredibly accessible language, delving into the science of earthquakes and the many compounding disasters that follow them. The dangers of the Cascadia subduction zone have only been highlighted in recent decades, largely due to America’s ignorance of Native history and the quirk of timing that white settlers arrived in the Pacific Northwest during a period of seismic calm that was assumed to be the norm instead of the exception. As the country, and the Navy in particular, prepare to face a wide range of climate disasters, this week’s long read provides an important reflection on the difficulties that lie ahead of us. Schulz poses questions that go beyond earthquake response to the heart of how we will move forward in the face of numerous emergencies: “How should a society respond to a looming crisis of uncertain timing but of catastrophic proportions? How can it begin to right itself when its entire infrastructure and culture developed in a way that leaves it profoundly vulnerable to natural disaster?” Schulz was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing and a National Magazine Award in 2016 for this piece, and as you read it, it will be easy to see why. This piece is particularly relevant to junior officers, as the Pacific Northwest is home to several major Navy installations.
