18th Asialink Lecture

Admiral Walter F. Doran
Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet

Sidney Myer Asia Centre, Tuesday 9 September 2003

Ms. McGregor, thank you very much for the kind introduction.

This has been a busy and eventful trip. We started in Hawaii where the greeting is a casual "Aloha". We spent one night in Japan where "ohayo gozimasu" starts off the day and today we find ourselves in Melbourne where I suppose I should open my comments by simply saying "G'Day".

I have been the Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet for almost a year and a half now and I’m pleased to be making my first trip to Australia. Part of the reason for my coming now is to express our appreciation for Australia being a steadfast ally throughout this ongoing Global War on Terrorism and thank the men and women of the Australian Defence Force who have dedicated themselves to defending freedom.

I'll admit that I’m a little embarrassed that it has taken me this long to visit but, as you know, it's been a very busy sixteen months. Now that we are here however, I think that I may have some trouble getting my staff back on the plane to go home. It makes it easier that home is in Hawaii, but Australia has always been an extremely popular destination for Americans.

What I would like to do tonight is give you a feel for what the United States Pacific Fleet does on a day-to-day basis; discuss some of the challenges we face together as a GLOBAL community, especially here in the important Asia/Pacific region; and discuss, from a maritime standpoint, some of the initiatives we are developing to counter those threats and enhance the stability and security of our region.

First, let me tell you a little about my responsibilities and what the men and women of the Pacific Fleet are up to.

In addition to a growing warfighting responsibility, the Pacific Fleet Commander, has the responsibility under U.S. law to organize, train, and equip U.S. Naval Forces in the Pacific. As Ms. McGregor mentioned during the introduction, this includes a large number of ships, aircraft, and submarines, but most importantly people.

The men and women of the Pacific Fleet were busy this past year. There are 6 aircraft carrier strike groups in the Pacific, and during Operation IRAQI FREEDOM we had 5 of the 6 deployed to either the Arabian Gulf or the Western Pacific along with the large majority of our expeditionary forces.

I can tell you this is historically significant. I’ve been in the Navy for a long time now, and can't recall a time when we deployed so much combat power from the Pacific. Maybe a history scholar can point to a time during World War II that such a large percentage of our Naval forces were deployed, but my career doesn't go back quite that far.

Today, our Navy has over 100 ships and nearly 40,000 men and women deployed around the world with the majority of them from the Pacific Fleet. Their welfare is my number one concern, and my most important task is to make sure they have the best training and equipment to do their job. Now, more than ever we need to nurture this all-volunteer force.

Two of the five Carrier Strike Groups that we deployed during Operation IRAQI FREEDOM are still on station overseas. One - the USS NIMITZ is in the Indian Ocean, and the other, USS CARL VINSON is operating in the Western Pacific. Those young men and women continue to do outstanding work. I am proud of them, their nation is proud of them, and I think the world should be proud of their efforts.

I know that we don’t have a monopoly on service and sacrifice in the United States Navy. In fact, alongside us every step of the way in this fight against terror have been the men and women from the Australian Defence Force.

As a Sailor, you take great comfort on the high seas when you meet a friend, especially a friend you know you can count on. This has been our history since World War I and if you talk to the men and women of the Pacific Fleet who have worked with and gone to war with your Navy, there is nothing but praise and admiration for their professionalism, dedication, and sacrifice.

The men and women from both our Navies remain on the front line fighting a war that started two years ago and will certainly continue for quite some time.

Two years ago today, the situations on the Korean peninsula, and between China and Taiwan characterized the strategic environment of the Pacific. These two disputes dictated, to a large degree, the overall stability of the region.
Two days later, on September 11th 2001, the free world was dealt a blow that would drastically change our lives and focus. While our concerns over tensions on the Korean peninsula and across the Taiwan Strait remain, our focus has shifted from those conventional threats to the transnational and asymmetric enemy we are at war with today…an enemy willing and capable of exporting terror to any and all corners of the earth, as we have too often been reminded.
Bali, Jakarta, the Philippines…all neighbors here in the Pacific and all recent targets of terror.

While terrorist activity has rightly garnered the most attention over the last two years, we must not overlook the always-present threat posed by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Another neighbor here in the Pacific, North Korea who recently acknowledged their pursuit of a nuclear weapons program, is also one of the world's leading weapons exporters. The thought of nuclear weapons in the hands of that nation should concern all of us greatly, as should the thought of those weapons or any other weapon of mass destruction ending up in the hands of terrorists.

Right now the threat of terrorism and the threat of weapons proliferation are two of our biggest challenges. If we effectively counter both of these threats we can avoid the far more frightening possibility of these threats becoming one and the same.

In our predominantly maritime theater, we are also faced with the increasingly alarming threat of piracy, and narco-trafficking that has a dangerous relationship with funding terrorist activity in addition to its obvious danger to society.

Clearly, maintaining a stable and secure Pacific is and should be a concern for all of us here, and indeed the world. Ensuring this stability is a complex challenge requiring the comprehensive application of every instrument of national power – diplomatic, economic, information, and in my case military. Our role is to ready and position our forces in a manner so that if called upon by our civilian leadership, we can respond and take the fight away from our shores.

This fight continues today, where we continue to hunt terrorists in Afghanistan and our military forces continue the struggle to stabilize and bring peace to Iraq, while simultaneously combining forces with our intelligence agencies to track down the remaining elements of Saddam’s regime. This road is not an easy one, but we’re committed to it.

The Royal Australian Navy's efforts in Maritime and Leadership Interdiction Operations helped thwart oil smuggling from Iraq in defiance of U.N. Sanctions and are deterring the escape of terrorists from Afghanistan by the sea. During Operation Iraqi Freedom in the North Arabian Gulf, the Royal Australian Navy uncovered almost 90 mines aboard an Iraqi tug, while your divers cleared countless more from nearby waters, allowing coalition ships unrestricted access in the Gulf and critical humanitarian aid to reach the people of Iraq.

Today, your Navy is widely regarded as experts in the realm of maritime interdiction operations...a critical expertise especially considering the threats discussed earlier like terrorists being transported by sea, and vessels being used as couriers for weapons of mass destruction.

With the majority of commerce -- especially oil -- still being transported by sea, the rise in piracy is a concern and a potential source of instability. Reversing this trend is primarily a law enforcement issue, and not directly in my lane unless it occurs outside territorial waters on the high seas.

There are seams or gaps in coverage, however, where some nations lack the ability to patrol their waters, and pirates and smugglers of people or weapons use this to their advantage.

Recently, the U.S. Pacific Fleet has been named as Executive Agent to design an initiative that could be helpful in reducing or removing those seams. The program called the "Regional Maritime Security Program" or RMSP, is still very much in its infancy but has great potential.

RMSP will be a maritime vehicle whereby like-minded nations can unite against terrorism and other threats to the security of the region. This program is meant to be a transnational effort that removes impediments to enforcement of international law and promotes cooperation among the international community to eradicate threats to the stability of the Asia/Pacific region.

The Regional Maritime Security Program will not be designed to replace law enforcement or individual countries' right to police and secure their borders, but rather to assist law enforcement. We need to capitalize upon and continue nurturing existing relationships within the region and work to remove the seams between law enforcement and the use of our military forces to protect our interests.

In the most simplistic terms, we need better situational awareness of what travels on our seas and through our waterways, enhanced command and control systems or methods to share this information, and the collective ability to interdict them away from our shores.

Today, we have a very limited knowledge of what is traveling on our oceans...yet we have a very accurate picture of what travels by air around the globe. Companies like the United Parcel Service and Federal Express are meticulous in their tracking of millions of packages or parcels of mail worldwide. A similar system is needed to achieve situational awareness of what travels on the seas, and technology is available to deliver this now.

This picture, overlaid with related intelligence information, will put us in a better position to act and secure our waterways. Intelligence sharing is key for us if we are going to successfully pursue terrorists, pirates or interdict the arms and drug traffickers before they can deliver evil to our shores.

Terrorists and criminals use territorial waters and the boundaries of nation states as sanctuaries. If we observe pirates or smugglers in action on the high seas, they are quick to seek shelter within the boundaries of territorial seas while we go through the process of notifying the nation so they can take appropriate action.

If we are pursuing terrorists, pirates or smugglers of weapons of mass destruction on the high seas, we can't afford to lose them...we've all witnessed the consequences. When they attempt to take refuge in a country's territorial waters, we need a means to alert and pass pursuit to that country's law enforcement agencies...RMSP will hopefully establish the means to do so.

Terrorism, like water, flows through the paths of least resistance. They move across national borders and gather in places where their presence goes unchallenged and where they feel free to export fear. Our role as leaders in maritime security is to make all paths as difficult as possible so those who wish to destroy freedom will no longer feel free to do so from the shores of our neighbors.

The famous American novelist Mark Twain once said, "Good fences make good neighbors". I've often felt the same way at home...but in this case some of these fences have become impediments to our security...we have to take them down.

In many cases they're already down and have been for years. In the case of the U.S. and Australia we have been strong allies since World War I and train and exercise together regularly, as we'll be doing a few days from now here in Australia, when we conduct the first of a series of interdiction exercises with several other like-minded countries.

This is an excellent opportunity to continue building relationships and tearing down fences while also learning from one another on how to best counter these threats we face.

Ultimately, this program can deliver a situation where terrorists will find it unimaginable to exploit the sea.

Today, the Pacific Fleet is also reshaping our force to better respond to the global threats we have discussed. We recognize that a more ready and responsive fleet is a necessity in this new threat environment and are transforming to allow us to more effectively meet this challenge.

We are changing our maintenance practices, overhauling our training schedules, and altering our operating patterns to make our Fleet more responsive to crises in the region and to better hunt down the terrorists. We will not operate and maintain our Navy according to past behavior practices.

We will apply the combat power of multiple Carrier and Expeditionary Strike Groups quickly, and we are distributing our combat power to make our expeditionary forces more lethal and better able to deal with this asymmetric enemy. That's what our enemies can expect from the United States Pacific Fleet, and that's our contribution to Regional Maritime Security.

As the Global War on Terrorism progresses, we will continue to depend on our friends from Australia and other like-minded nations with the will to join this just cause and prevent a re-occurrence of events like September 11th, Bali, Jakarta, and the Philippines.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm here in large part to thank you for your county’s friendship and your military’s contributions to this war on terror. I'm also here to tell you that the fight continues and the only way for us to ultimately triumph over the threats we've talked about today is to do so together.

Thank you very much for your attention, I have truly enjoyed speaking with you tonight. Now if there are some questions, I would be happy to try to answer them.