Posted on 05/05/2018 9:11:21 PM PDT by Enlightened1
Washington (AFP) - A top US navy admiral announces the re-establishment of the US 2nd Fleet -- a Cold War command disbanded in 2011 -- to patrol the North Atlantic and face a resurgent threat from Russia.
The chief of US Naval Operations, Admiral John Richardson, made the announcement during a change of command ceremony Friday in the Atlantic naval port of Norfolk, Virginia.
"Our National Defense Strategy makes clear that we're back in an era of great power competition as the security environment continues to grow more challenging and complex," said Richardson, according to a navy statement.
"That's why today, we're standing up Second Fleet to address these changes, particularly in the north Atlantic."
The 2nd Fleet command was disbanded as a cost-savings measure in 2011, and its assets and personnel dispersed within the navy.
The new command will be responsible for US naval forces along the US east coast as well as the north Atlantic region, a navy statement said.
Before it was disbanded the 2nd Fleet played a key role during the Cold War years, with operations in the North Atlantic and supporting US naval forces in the Mediterranean.
Russian planes and ships have in recent months made multiple incursions in the north Atlantic close to the airspace and territorial waters of US NATO allies, including Britain.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Why don’t you let those who actually know what’s going on make the decisions on how to deploy our military?
cold duty
The ships had to come from somewhere else because very few are being built.
Thank you! You are quite the Naval history buff. A tip o the hat to ya.
[raising hand] Me!
Nothing, but it can cause tunnel vision. If that fleet needs to be deployed in the Med or near the Falklands, using it there could simply never occur to the powers that be, or should it happen, do they need to re-issue every memo with “North Atlantic Fleet” in the header with the new zone of responsibility?
A Fleet is like an Army HQs or an Air Force, a major combatant command, it is then made up of an actual flotilla of tools and people- Task forces and Squadrons etc, kinda like an Army is made up of Corps, Divisions, Brigades, battalions etc.
Our Joint Commands like CENTCOM, AFRICOM, EUCOM, PACCOM, NORTHCOM, SOUTHCOM (again, a staff for command and control) then ask for troops, planes, ships etc to execute the responsibilities given by the National Command Authority ( (Joint Chiefs/POTUS/Congress).
The Organizational Diagram of our military is found online if interested.
Think of a combatant command as a corporations executive Hqs, CEO, COO, CFO and staff, then add in the business functions like manufacturing, sales, logistics etc....
You’re welcome and thank you, too, but I should have noted that I got that from Wikipedia.
Fleets are planning, training and operational headquarters. They control the ships operating within their designated area. 2nd Fleet is the Atlantic. 6th Fleet is the Med. As ship heading to the Med for a deployment is under control of the 2nd Fleet until it passes Gibraltar, when it transfers to the 6th Fleet.
The US Army’s numbered field armies work the same way. Brigades and divisions can swing from one army to the other depending on the deployment.
Could we grant McCain his last “Make a Wish” request, and catapult him off the end of one of our aircraft carriers?
The retired Navy folks here and I were discussing it and they don't see them. It takes three carriers to start up a fleet; one in maintenance, one in work ups and one deployed.
It takes three destroyers, two cruisers, two attack subs and associated logistics ships(3): If one is doing the near peer fight, the 2+2 isn't going to cut it.
So where are we getting all these extra ships and subs from? We'd have to build three more carries, nine more destroyers, six more cruisers, six more attack subs and nine more logistics ships of varying configurations.
Where are the ships, personnel and CASH to man them coming form? Where are we going to BUILD the extra carriers?
We can build one carrier at a time right now. We have the dry dock space to build two at a time at Newport News, but doubling the workforce there and at suppliers? The infrastructure build out to do two carriers at a time has to be in the $100 billion range.
I'm all for spending the cash, but holly cow! Saying we're standing up another fleet with nothing to equip it? Talk about paper tigers...
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