Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert said Monday that he wants to continue building relations with countries in the Asia-Pacific region and sees opportunities to further integrate with key ally Japan in a way that resembles the NATO alliance.
The United States and Japan are already closely intertwined with Tokyo frequently joining U.S. naval operations in the region, but Greenert said that level of cooperation can increase not just in exercises and operations, but also in developing and deploying ship systems.
“In the future we have that opportunity, with collective self-defense…to integrate like our NATO allies,” Greenert said of Japan during a speech hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Greenert spoke ahead of the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercises scheduled to get underway near Hawaii at the end of July. There are 23 nations lined up to participate in RIMPAC, including China for the first time. Greenert welcomed China’s participation and said it is crucial as Beijing ‘s navy grows and emerges into an effective force, but also to allow the United States and China to foment understanding and communication.
“They are active, they are capable and they are a professional blue water navy,” Greenert said, referring to China’s effort to find the missing Malaysian airliner, as well as counter-terrorism and counter-piracy missions. He said the United States can help guide Chinese maritime forces into a responsible leader in the region.
“It’s about preventing misunderstanding and miscalculations,” Greenert said. “It’s not about containment, it’s about shaping a rising navy that can be great and will be great but also has to be responsible and a leader in a very important area.”
Greenert said the United States will continue to build up its naval presence as part of its shift to the Asia-Pacific. The Navy’s presence in the region is slated to reach 58 ships in 2015 and grow to 67 in 2020, he said. That will include the addition of an attack submarine next year to Guam, two more ballistic missile defense destroyers to Japan in the years ahead, as well as four Littoral Combat Ships planned to start arriving to Singapore in 2017 as part of a permanent presence.
The new transport Joint High Speed Vessels will also deploy to the region, as well as staging ships like the Mobile Landing Platform, Greenert said. The mobile platforms are designed to support operations while allowing the Navy to be less dependent on foreign ports.
The P-8 Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft and EA-18 Electronic attack Growlers are already there and by the end of this decade the Navy will have stationed the Triton unmanned aircraft and F-35C Joint Strike Fighters in the region, he said.
Greenert said relations continue to grow with Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and that “we are being offered opportunities in Indonesia I never thought I would see.”
“This is an opportunity here we need to continue to build on,” he said.