The Office of Naval Research is an organization within the US Department of Navy. Ray Powell’s Project Myoushu started at Stanford’s GKC. Funny how Powell’s information has disappeared from Stanford’s GKC. The internet never forgets, though!
Tag: power projection
Lighting Up the Gray Zone: The Philippines-Taiwan Counter-Coercion Toolkit
Perry World House’s Thomas Shattuck and Robin Garcia are out with an important new white paper which recommends the public release of visual information to counter China’s coercive activities, using the Philippines and Taiwan as examples. As the champions of “assertive transparency”, SeaLight enthusiastically welcomes this timely new scholarship!
Lighting Up the Gray Zone: The Philippines-Taiwan Counter-Coercion Toolkit
Perry World House is at the University of Pennsylvania, another university funded by the US government. I’ve updated my Project Myoushu document, to reflect the following:
The origin of Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation. It’s sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, an organization within the Department of Navy. I saw it over at the Asian Century Journal, yesterday.
From a previous post.
Related:
Japan, U.S. and Philippines to discuss stronger military ties & US, Philippines to expand strategic port
Japan, U.S. and Philippines to discuss stronger military ties
The three foreign ministers will discuss ways to strengthen cooperation in the wake of increasing collisions in the South China Sea between ships from the Philippines and China.
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They agreed to work toward signing a Reciprocal Access Agreement that would make it easier for members of the Self-Defense Forces and the Philippine military to engage in joint training exercises by simplifying procedures to obtain visas and bring weapons and ammunition into each other’s countries.
Japan will also provide funds for the Philippines to acquire a coastal surveillance radar system.
Related:
US, Philippines to expand strategic port
Read More »‘Desperate’ US Seeks Japan’s & South Korea’s Help To Restart Its Defunct Shipyards; Keep Pace With China
The US approach focuses on tapping Asian funding, engineering know-how, and shipbuilding experience to expand its shipbuilding capacity, Nikkeia Asia reported.
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Emanuel said, “There’s a closed plant in Philadelphia. There’s a closed Navy shipyard in Long Beach. And there are a couple of others…We wanted to see if Mitsubishi and other Japanese companies would be interested in potentially investing and reopening one of those shipyards and being part of building Navy, commercial, and Coast Guard ships.”
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Emanuel had also hinted in January this year that for US Navy warships to remain in Asian waters and be prepared for any future confrontation, the United States and Japan are attempting to reach an agreement enabling Japanese shipyards to do routine maintenance and overhauls.
Over the past 40 years, China has developed a remarkable commercial shipbuilding industry, cautioned Del Toro at an event. “We’ve lost that capability from about the 1980s when we left it open to market forces.”
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The US has seen a very significant dip in its shipbuilding capacity. Nine of the 13 public naval shipyards the United States formerly had are closed. Several closed shipyards are now national parks, naval air stations, or container terminals. However, a few could be brought back for ship repair or construction.
The urgency to resuscitate these redundant shipyards stems from the threat posed by China’s massive shipbuilding industry, producing many naval vessels that could be used to project dominance in far seas and deployed against the US and its Indo-Pacific allies in the event of a conflict.
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According to the latest Pentagon’s annual report to Congress on Chinese military and security developments, the Chinese Navy possesses an estimated 350 vessels, while the US Navy battle force has 293 warships.
The yawning gap of 60 hulls between the two navies is expected to grow every five years until 2035, when China will have an estimated 475 naval ships compared to 305-317 US warships. Notably, China has inducted as many as 150 warships in the last ten years.
H/T: Johnsonwkchoi
Related:
U.S. seeks to revive idled shipyards with help of Japan, South Korea – Nikkei Asia
But while quick repairs on damages suffered through deployment are allowed, like the Big Horn at Mitsubishi, U.S. law prohibits U.S.-based ships to undergo full-scale overhaul, repair or maintenance at a shipyard outside the U.S. or Guam. Changing such a law — put in place to protect U.S. jobs — may face headwinds, especially in an election year.
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Both tours were led by the companies’ respective CEOs. The shipbuilders expressed “strong interest” in establishing U.S. subsidiaries and investing in shipyards in the U.S., the Navy said in a press release.
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U.S. Navy ships are currently built by seven private shipbuilders, including two non-American players: Italy’s Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Wisconsin and Australia’s Austal USA in Alabama. The involvement of two international shipbuilders serves as a precedent as the Asian players contemplate entry.
Maintenance of the most sensitive nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines are conducted exclusively at four public naval shipyards — in Virginia, Maine, Washington and Hawaii.
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Emanuel said that when he started working for former President Bill Clinton in the early 1990s, there were 10 to 11 shipyards that built naval ships. “We’re down to seven and our work is growing. You’re not going to get the same volume out of seven that you got out of 11. You need to get back to 11 or 10.”
Containing China: US Using Taiwan as East Asian “Ukraine”
Washington’s True Fear of China: An Obstacle to American Hegemony
A recent op-ed appearing in Foreign Affairs titled, “The Taiwan Catastrophe,” helps paint a clear picture of US motivations behind its growing confrontation with China and the increasingly unrealistic nature of Washington’s desired outcome.
Washington’s True Fear of China: An Obstacle to American Hegemony
Wikileaks Reveals Alexei Navalny’s US Funding as Washington Exploits His Death
Urgent Call for U.S. Sealift Capacity Expansion to Counter China
Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-WI), the Chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, is sounding the alarm on the United States’ “woefully inadequate” sealift fleet capacity to counter China in the event of an Indo-Pacific conflict.
Congressman Makes Urgent Call for U.S. Sealift Capacity Expansion to Counter China
Philippines counts the cost of tough South China Sea stance against Beijing
Philippines counts the cost of tough South China Sea stance against Beijing
The Philippines has become a laboratory in responding to Beijing on the South China Sea row, taking the most risk but showing inconsistency and underwhelming results thus far. Its predicament explains why other Southeast Asian claimant states remain unlikely to follow its lead. The tepid reaction to Manila’s pitch for an Asean claimants-only Code of Conduct is indicative.
As had happened in the past, lost economic opportunities and further erosion of Manila’s position in the flashpoint, relative to other disputants, may lead to a possible policy reversal in handling the maritime tiff come the 2028 presidential election.
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Last year, the Philippines began to expose China’s illicit actions in the disputed waters. It inserted reporters in routine patrols and resupply sorties to document interference by the Chinese coastguard and maritime militia ships. The idea is to rally local and international support and impose reputational costs on Beijing. [Project Myoushu AKA Transparency Initiative]
This approach made strides in rousing public backing for Manila’s defence build-up, a stronger alliance with the United States, and a tougher stance against China. However, it also contributed to polarising domestic politics, affecting people-to-people ties and diminishing Chinese economic interest in the Philippines. Meanwhile, Beijing remains unmoved, weathering reputational costs and continuing to wield a capacity for escalation in the South China Sea.
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During Xi’s visit to Hanoi last December, both sides vowed to upgrade the Kunming-Haiphong rail line. In contrast, Chinese funding for three rail projects discussed during the previous Duterte government is already dead in the water. China is unlikely to become a strong partner for President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s Build Better More infrastructure programme.
Losses in the tourism sector have also become evident. In 2019, before the pandemic, China was the Philippines’ fastest-growing tourist market, with more than 1.7 million arrivals, or a 21.1 per cent market share, just behind South Korea. Last year, as countries in Asia raced to benefit from the return of Chinese tourists, the Philippines only welcomed over 260,000 tourists from China, with the market share shrinking to just 4.84 per cent.
Ironically, for all the talk about Duterte’s China policy as appeasement, it was under his watch that the Philippines made the biggest upgrade in infrastructure in the Spratlys since the 1970s. He also invested in modernising the country’s military, procuring modern frigates from South Korea, multirole response vessels from Japan and cruise missiles from India. All these happened while relations with China remained stable.
Another irony is that while Manila celebrates every resupply mission to the Second Thomas Shoal that successfully eluded the Chinese blockade, Vietnam is busy doing substantial reclamation on its Spratly outposts and gearing for a potential second airfield, with reportedly little interference from Beijing. [Bueller?]
These should offer plenty of insights as the strategy of the Philippines over the maritime squabble evolves.
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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