Admiral Obvious Sings A Jingle
Future naval operations will require persistent activity inside the enemy’s reach.
“We must not be deterred.”
“We must not be deterred!”
WE MUST NOT BE DETERRED! (echoes fade into the distance)
This is a brief commentary on an exceedingly fascinating report of a speech delivered today by the commander of the United States Pacific Fleet, Admiral Stephen Koehler. It’s a two-minute read, at most. I recommend it.
If nothing else, you will thereby be exposed to an eloquent exhibition of Admiral Mumbo Jumbo, a dialect of Pentagonorrhea corrupted by war industry sales brochure catch phrases.
In any case – and somewhat to my surprise – Koehler appears to vaguely discern the root problem: his opponents in a putative war in the western Pacific (China, Russia, North Korea) possess a long and potentially heavy-fisted reach.
Nevertheless, the intrepid Admiral is certain this problem can be overcome by the indomitable US Navy, and all the newfangled gadgetry that will soon restore US global power projection to its glory days.
Here are a few excerpts from the report:
“Just as speed is a defining characteristic in our modern battlespace, we also need persistence. And what I’m talking about here is persistent power projection and persistent domination of the battlespace leading to a denial of the adversary’s objective,” Adm. Stephen Koehler, commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet, said during a presentation at AFCEA’s TechNet Indo-Pacific conference in Hawaii Tuesday.
“It means forces are able to execute prolonged operations against evolving threats and our forces are able to operate inside the enemy’s weapon engagement zone, or WEZ … We must not be deterred from operating at the time and place of our choosing. To do so would succumb to an adversary area denial strategy and cede battlespace, and I refuse to do that.”
Koehler noted that part of his remit within USPACFLT is to bring the fight forward to the enemy on their turf.
If “the fighter that you’re fighting has a longer reach than you have, then if you don’t maneuver, if you don’t work different ways to get in there, he’s going to pummel you. But that doesn’t mean you don’t fight him and that’s not what militaries do,” he said. “We work inside the weapons engagement zone, that’s how you affect the fight, and that’s our job.”
Well, Admiral, I hate to be the one to break the news to you, but “working inside the weapons engagement zone” against China and Russia means getting capital ships destroyed, lots of aircraft shot down, lots of sailors and airmen killed, and major regional bases mercilessly pummeled by what will soon come to be seen as an inexhaustible stockpile of armaments.
I am notorious for my frequent repetition of the hashtag #NoEasyWarsLeftToFight. But I must invoke it again in this context, because attempting to fight a war for dominion over the western Pacific is the acme of madness for the increasingly enfeebled 21st century Anglo-American empire.
Of course, I recognize that many will vehemently protest my suggestion that any US war in the western Pacific must assume the participation of all three major US adversaries in the region: China, Russia, and North Korea. Nevertheless, it is true. In fact, the team will also include Iran — an arrangement about which I have written previously: All for One and One for All.
Whether Japan, Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand obediently join the Americans in a war on such terms remains uncertain in my estimation. But I am convinced the Chinese, Russians, Iranians, and North Koreans will collaborate in a coordinated fashion to push the Americans back to the Third Island Chain.
And thus the power dynamics of the entire planet will be profoundly altered for decades to come.
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— Will Schryver