NEW DELHI: The United States is preparing to raise a new force formation to handle the increased Chinese maritime activities.
A senior official of the US Navy spoke of the idea recently, saying such a formation will oversee areas between the Indian and Pacific oceans, including the South China Sea.
“We want to stand up a new numbered fleet. And we want to put that numbered fleet in the crossroads between the Indian and the Pacific oceans, and we’re really going to have an Indo-PACOM footprint,” said US Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite on Tuesday.
Braithwaite is scheduled to visit India in the coming weeks.
Defence analyst Commodore Anil Jai Singh (retd) termed the raising of a new fleet as an idea in the making.
“Whether the new fleet will have asset relocation from the existing fleets or it will be raised with new warships will take time to concretize,” he said.
“As per the US Navy Secretary, the area covered by the Japan-based US Navy’s Seventh Fleet is too big. Raising a new fleet is a big task requiring major manpower and asset allocation.”
The second phase of the Malabar multinational maritime exercise has begun in the northern Arabian Sea with the navies of the US, Australia and Japan exercising with the Indian Navy.
The US operates across the continents with seven active fleets – Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh Fleet and Tenth Fleets. These fleets operate under commands.
The US plan is to base assets which will look after the activities in the South China Sea, said Commodore Singh.