The U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard say they need to begin acting more assertively to push back against gray-zone operations China is already conducting today. That means having more forward forces to deter, to document malign behaviors and to support partners as they protect their territory, according to service leaders.
The three services released a new strategy today, Advantage at Sea: Prevailing with Integrated All-Domain Naval Power, after 11 months of work determining the best way to push back against Chinese behavior already taking place as well as prepare for greater crisis or conflict should it occur.
“We have to have a force that’s not just focused on that high end, and we have to act in the day to day, because people with adversarial approaches to that freedom of access to the global commons, to that rule of law, are looking to push until there’s resistance. And we haven’t offered that as much in the past,” Rear Adm. James Bynum, the acting deputy chief of naval operations for warfighting development, told USNI News today during a media roundtable on the new document.
“We need to be consistent with global rules-based order. And so that we’re not only speaking on behalf of U.S. laws and regulations, but we’re really leading on behalf of the global community as you call out coercive behavior that is against norms. Additionally, to do it in close coordination with our partner nations: we are not the only one in the South China Sea region or in the [U.S. Southern Command] area of responsibility that recognizes and then vocalizes their concerns for that type of behavior,” he said of Chinese violations of fisheries laws and other natural resources.
Rock acknowledged that prioritizing this work over other demands from combatant commanders is easier said than done, but he said this document lays down a marker that the joint force needs to allow the Naval Service – the collective of the Navy, Marines and Coast Guard – to focus on this day-to-day competition so the United States doesn’t find itself unable to catch up or unable to access strategic maritime locations if tensions were to increase.
Additionally, they spoke about investments to support a force that can compete in gray-zone operations and also win in a fight.
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