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Central to our Pacific Fleet engagement strategy is its ability to provide, supply and maintain viable forces throughout the Western Pacific arena. There are a number of bases and support facilities in the region the Pacific Fleet has traditionally used. In a new initiative, the Fleet is making use of Guam’s forward location at the crossroads of the Pacific. The recent decision to forward base three fast attack submarines in Guam underscores its strategic importance. It will provide operational commanders more operational flexibility by reducing transit time from the U.S. West Coast or Hawaii. Additionally, its status as a U.S. territory allows for storage and loading of key prepositioned war munitions and supplies.

Accordingly, the Pacific Fleet Headquarters has remained keenly engaged in assuring U.S. government leaders are aware of Guam’s strategic value to our national interests. Guam offers the Pacific Fleet greater flexibility in responding to peacetime requirements and crisis action planning courses of action to meet emergent situations.

The USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) Battle Group is joined by ships from Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, and Korea during Exercise RIMPAC 2000.

Photo by PH2 Gabriel Wilson, USN

People

The significant aspect of everything that occurs within the theater is the Pacific Fleet’s reliance upon its talented sailors and Marines. They are obviously inextricably linked to the Pacific Fleet’s warfighting capabilities, and effectiveness as our “ambassadors” who reflect our core values of duty, honor, and commitment to excellence.
We are improving the quality of life for our people and their families through initiatives such as housing improvements, pay, recreational opportunities and family service programs. We also recognize that while our people know their service requires deployments of up to six months, their leaders will use the maintenance and training time between deployments wisely in order to ensure our people can lead full and productive lives.

Importance of Naval Forces

Pacific Fleet naval forces have a very positive role to play in the development and maintenance of regional cooperation. The U.S. Navy has operated forward – in the Pacific for generations – as far back as the East India Squadron in 1835, and Commodore Perry’s Great White Fleet entering Yokohama, Japan in 1853. We, as a nation, not only have historical ties to the Pacific, we have growing cultural ties. The most recent U.S. census tells us that 12 million or 4.3 percent of the U.S. population indentify themselves culturally or ethnically with the Asia-Pacific region. We have built relationships with our regional partners and trust with the leadership of many diverse populations. Nowhere is that more evident than here in the Western Pacific, where our forward deployed naval forces work to further those relationships while helping to provide the stability that is so essential to the economic well-being of this complex region.

The U.S. engagement plan and our maritime strategy depend on our ability to transit vast areas and maintain not only our freedom of navigation, but also freedom of navigation for our friends and allies as well. The forward presence of our naval force capabilities permits the unencumbered movement of raw materials and finished goods that continue to transit the critical sea lines of communication throughout the Pacific on a daily basis.

The U.S. oceans’ policy, as executed by the Pacific Fleet, is designed to preserve and protect such freedom of navigation rights of transit. It remains essential for the U.S. to remain forward and engaged to help shape the future for a prosperous and peaceful Asia-Pacific Region. The elements of precision strike, expeditionary Marines operating from the sea, and sea-based transport, combined with the five primary mission areas of Pacific Fleet forces (maritime supremacy, power projection from sea to land, strategic deterrence, strategic sealift, and forward naval presence) provide credible reassurance upon which regional countries rely, as we continue to build a collective security environment among our friends and allies.

The Pacific Fleet is versatile, responsive, and sustainable. Most importantly, they are mobile. Naval forces, by their expeditionary quality, with a culture and a rhythm to move rapidly to where we are needed, are best suited to counter the transnational issues that face the Western Pacific today: humanitarian assistance needs, ongoing peacekeeping operations, the need for cooperative search and rescue, and assisting in law enforcement efforts to counter piracy and international drug smuggling. “Expeditionary” implies a mindset and a commitment to fully integrate U.S. Marine, Navy and Coast Guard forces with those of other services and other nations. Such forces can be properly inserted into a situation, and then just as readily withdrawn. There is no residual force – no lasting footprint.

The Pacific Fleet is committed to the continued security of the Asia-Pacific Rim through its forward naval presence, and recurring deployments of Hawaii and West Coast based units that are central to our maintaining security in this dynamic arena. The relative stability of the region can be attributed, in part, to the decades of U.S. commitment to engagement in Asia through our forward basing policies, and in particular our forward deployed naval forces permanently stationed in the theater. Pacific Fleet naval forces stand trained and ready, either to extend a hand in friendship, or to respond to any crisis as we navigate through the 21st century – “the Century of the Pacific.”