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Home» News»US Navy Chief Calls for RIMPAC-style Exercise in Euro-Atlantic Region
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US Navy Chief Calls for RIMPAC-style Exercise in Euro-Atlantic Region
The US Navy’s (USN’s) Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Essex (left) leads a formation of ships during the USN’s ‘RIMPAC’ exercise off Hawaii in July 2022. The USN’s Chief of Naval Operations has called for a major maritime exercise to be established in the Euro-Atlantic theatre’s polar waters, to underline the region’s increasing significance. (US Navy photo)

US Navy Chief Calls for RIMPAC-style Exercise in Euro-Atlantic Region

The polar region of the Euro-Atlantic theatre becomes increasingly important in strategic terms. To such an extent that Western allies and partners could consider establishing a major multinational maritime exercise in this region, the US Navy’s (USN’s) Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Michael Gilday told a UK Royal Navy (RN) conference in London.

Dr Lee Willett 18 May 2023

The strategic drivers behind establishing such an exercise – which could be similar in construct to the USN’s ‘Rim of the Pacific’ (RIMPAC) event, held bi-annually off Hawaii – would be to reflect the region’s growing significance. This significance is accelerating, as climate change potentially opens up new sea lines of communication (SLOCs) across the polar regions.

Such SLOCs would connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans geophysically; they would also reflect the increasing geostrategic connection being drawn between the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific theatres by the return of state-based competition and conflict, and by Western need to counter simultaneously a peer competitor in each theatre (namely, Russia and China).

“Just as we have a RIMPAC exercise every two years, I could see in the future that we would have an exercise – not necessarily led by the United States, but led by another country – that would be centred on the polar ice rim,” Adm Gilday told the RN First Sea Lord’s Sea Power Conference 2023, hosted at Lancaster House in London, in partnership with the Council on Geostrategy and King’s College London, on 16 May.

“We should think big in terms of large exercises up there with like-minded navies, to basically send the message that this area is really important strategically, [and] it needs to remain open and free.”


Admiral Michael M. Gilday, Chief of Naval Operations of the U.S. Navy

Adm Gilday pointed to several specific events and sustained trends that are shaping Western strategic focus on the Euro-Atlantic polar region.

“We no longer just talk about the trans-Atlantic nature of the [NATO] alliance. We are going to start talking about the trans-Polar aspect much more often. I think it’s going to drive our behaviour,” CNO said. Here, he noted, Finland’s recent accession and Sweden’s anticipated accession to NATO have been fundamental in shifting NATO focus further north in the Euro-Atlantic theatre.

“I think that [region] is increasingly going to get more attention as it becomes an area of more intense economic competition,” Adm Gilday continued. Underlining the impact of climate change on global trade through the prospective opening up of Arctic SLOCs, CNO added:

“Within the next couple of decades, the trade routes between Asia and Europe will fundamentally change.”

Moreover, there is already a naval operational element to the increasing security linkage between the two theatres, with European navies regularly operating with the USN in the Indo-Pacific theatre, Adm Gilday explained. “You increasingly see combined patrols by US and European navies out of the European theatre, whether it’s in the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Gulf, or further east in the South China Sea,” he said. “So, I think we’re on a trajectory right now that is trans-regional, that is all-domain, and that has driven us even closer.”        

 “The obvious natural bridge between the Atlantic and the Pacific … is the Arctic,” CNO continued. “Combined [naval] patrols up there are increasing.”

RIMPAC US Navy 2023-05-18
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Indo Pacific 2023

Authors

Posted by : Dr Lee Willett
Dr Lee Willett is an independent analyst on defence and security matters, specialising in naval and maritime issues. Based in London, Dr Willett has 25 years’ experience working across the academic, independent, and media sectors: he spent 13 years at the RUSI think-tank, including running the maritime studies programme; and he spent four years at Janes, as editor of Janes Navy International. He has spent time at sea onboard: UK Royal Navy ships and submarines; US Navy aircraft carriers, amphibious platforms, and surface ships; and (having attended several NATO exercises, including ‘BALTOPS’, ‘Cold Response’, and ‘Dynamic Manta’) surface ships and submarines from various NATO allies. He has given evidence to UK parliamentary committees, on topics including sea-based nuclear deterrence, counterpiracy, and maritime surveillance.

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