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Interesting article in the US Naval Institute Proceedings, giving the views of 37 naval commanders-in-chief around the world as to what are the most important maritime security threats at the moment: http://www.usni.org/magazines/procee...?STORY_ID=1808
Some examples:
Vice Admiral R. H. Crane
Chief of Navy, Australia
Australia is an island nation in one of the most maritime-intensive domains in the world. Our ability to use the sea is central to the protection of Australia's national interests. As a nation with no land borders, our dependence on the oceans, from both an economic and security perspective, has continued to develop. Our maritime-dominated strategic geography therefore presents us with unique challenges. We continue to rely on the maritime environment for economic prosperity, both for natural resources and as the fundamental highway for our trade. In economic terms, 99.7 percent of Australia's international trade by volume and 75 percent by value was transported by sea in 2008. Australia's continued reliance on the maritime environment will dominate our thinking.
One of the most significant maritime security challenges facing Australia is the strategic vulnerability of our maritime economic trade over extended sea lines of communication. The long distances over which Australia must secure its trade and raw resource base presents significant challenges to Australian naval forces in applying traditional concepts, such as sea control, in planning for any application of maritime power. The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) seeks to secure our maritime trade base through application of both soft and hard power with our involvement in allied and regional naval engagement. This helps us develop understanding, transparency, and confidence building and, if required, gives us options to work with allies and friends in the considered and precise application of maritime power to exert sea control.
The RAN places a high priority on contributing to international efforts through active middle power diplomacy. One of the most important ways that we seek to promote mutual strategic interest is through a network of alliances. These alliances reinforce stable strategic frameworks in our immediate neighborhood as well as the wider Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean regions and assist in reducing potential threats. Australia continues to develop a network of naval partnerships as an important foundation for navies to work together if and when required to ensure potential threats to our maritime trade are mitigated.
Assisting in our regional engagement endeavors is our overt joint force approach, which provisions and sustains a balanced fleet postured through a two-ocean basing policy. As part of a joint force, the RAN is structured to apply maritime power, when required, to maintain freedom of navigation thereby preserve the integrity of sea-lanes vital to Australia. This is enabled by a continued focus on the use of submarines and major surface combatants, and, in the future, our air-warfare destroyers. Operating in the amphibious environment with land forces with our soon-to-be-introduced amphibious assault ships will allow us to respond to any shore-based contingency when required.
Rear Admiral Jean-Paul Robyns
Commander, Belgian Maritime Component
Belgium is a maritime nation with a merchant fleet ranked 22nd in the world in tonnage and having 75 percent of its trade move by sea. This trade has grown exponentially in recent years, and it goes without saying that energy shortages will accentuate it. Safe sea lines of communication and ports, primarily Zeebruges and Antwerp, will become more than ever a key factors to our country's economic survival.
The rise of piracy and terrorism is a genuine threat to the freedom of the seas, making investment in maritime security paramount. I strongly believe that our navies in years to come will play a major role and maritime security operations will gain importance.
To prepare for this mission, my navy started a transformation by acquiring multi-purpose frigates, modernizing our minehunters, and investing in very-shallow-water tactics and materiel. The new frigates constitute a major step forward for the Belgian Navy. Compared to the former E71 class, these ships are of a higher technical standard, with far better sensors, improved weapon and self-defense systems, and most important, helicopter capacity. We will embark the new NH90 helicopter. The frigates are multi-role and can engage in every scenario, including maritime security operations. In 2009 the Leopold I will participate in UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) with an embarked staff as we take command of the Maritime Task Force (MTF) from 1 March. The Louise-Marie will join Operation Atalanta in August, in the fight against piracy.
To improve our mine warfare capacity, we are engaged in a capability upkeep program—to be completed in mid-year—that includes a new command-and-control system, a self-propelled variable-depth sonar, a new hull-mounted sonar, and the Seafox mine disposal system. The first operational evaluations appear very promising. At sea, the hunters are supported by a command and support ship that will be replaced in 2015.
Furthermore, we are investing in a very-shallow-water antimine capacity with the Remus countermeasure system and divers. This system is under evaluation and should be augmented by other systems in the future.
Finally, we opened a new Maritime Information Centre at the Zeebruges Naval Base that focuses on all security aspects of our home waters. It is an interagency operation with colleagues from the police and Customs Department.
I believe that the Belgian Navy is taking adequate steps to counter the threat to our maritime security. This threat, combined with the drastically growing demand for energy and budgetary restraints, will make cooperation among navies a high priority. What we do together, we do better.
Rear Admiral Nils Christian Wang
Admiral, Danish Fleet
Denmark is heavily engaged in furthering peace and security across the world. We are ready to share responsibilities and risks, making international operations a prime task of the Danish armed forces. In addition, we are a significant maritime nation with strong regional, Arctic, and global interests and a very substantial merchant navy. Thus, the very complex, dynamic, diffuse, and unpredictable security environment, armed conflict, instability, transnational security issues, terrorism, piracy, access to and flow of resources, and climate change all pose threats, challenges, and risks with local, regional, or even global implications.
This can only be addressed through close multilateral cooperation, a dedicated effort, a wide-range of capabilities, and a comprehensive approach. The Royal Danish Navy has been heavily engaged across the full expanse of operations, most recently from Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, UN World Food Program, UNIFIL off Lebanon, to Task Force 150, where Commander Danish Task Group, from his flagship HDMS Absalon, took command from September 2008 to January 2009. This mission has clearly proven the Danish Task Group concept as well as the capacity of the multipurpose ships of the Absalon-class, with embarked armed helicopter and Special Forces with their rigid-hull inflatable boats (RHIBs).
On numerous occasions HDMS Absalon—in cooperation with coalition forces—prevented pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden, and on two specific occasions pirates were detained on board the Danish flagship. Piracy has serious implications on free trade and maritime security as such, and the lack of a legal framework for prosecuting pirates poses challenges. Furthermore, piracy and maritime crime should also be addressed ashore through capacity building and other long-term measures. Long-term solutions depend on the ability of all coastal nations to establish and maintain the necessary degree of maritime security in their own waters. This is why capacity building has to be an essential part of our common effort in furthering world maritime security. As a major seafaring nation, Denmark takes a specific interest in this area, and we are ready to do our part.
On a daily basis, the Royal Danish Navy is engaged in Arctic waters around Greenland, where climate change might have significant geostrategic, environmental, security, and safety implications; in Danish waters, where one of the busiest international chokepoints puts special attention on maritime domain awareness; and, when needed, in trouble spots around the globe, together with our allies and partners.
The navy is thus an important part of an active foreign and security policy, safeguarding our interests from the sea, if necessary by force. It requires a wide range of effective, flexible, deployable, well-equipped, and well-trained capabilities ready to deal with the threats and challenges where they emerge. With the Absalon-class multipurpose ships, our patrol frigates, and incoming high-end frigates as well as other assets, we are on the right track in being even more able to address the challenges, from humanitarian missions over capacity building and constabulary tasks to high-intensity operations.
Some examples:
Vice Admiral R. H. Crane
Chief of Navy, Australia
Australia is an island nation in one of the most maritime-intensive domains in the world. Our ability to use the sea is central to the protection of Australia's national interests. As a nation with no land borders, our dependence on the oceans, from both an economic and security perspective, has continued to develop. Our maritime-dominated strategic geography therefore presents us with unique challenges. We continue to rely on the maritime environment for economic prosperity, both for natural resources and as the fundamental highway for our trade. In economic terms, 99.7 percent of Australia's international trade by volume and 75 percent by value was transported by sea in 2008. Australia's continued reliance on the maritime environment will dominate our thinking.
One of the most significant maritime security challenges facing Australia is the strategic vulnerability of our maritime economic trade over extended sea lines of communication. The long distances over which Australia must secure its trade and raw resource base presents significant challenges to Australian naval forces in applying traditional concepts, such as sea control, in planning for any application of maritime power. The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) seeks to secure our maritime trade base through application of both soft and hard power with our involvement in allied and regional naval engagement. This helps us develop understanding, transparency, and confidence building and, if required, gives us options to work with allies and friends in the considered and precise application of maritime power to exert sea control.
The RAN places a high priority on contributing to international efforts through active middle power diplomacy. One of the most important ways that we seek to promote mutual strategic interest is through a network of alliances. These alliances reinforce stable strategic frameworks in our immediate neighborhood as well as the wider Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean regions and assist in reducing potential threats. Australia continues to develop a network of naval partnerships as an important foundation for navies to work together if and when required to ensure potential threats to our maritime trade are mitigated.
Assisting in our regional engagement endeavors is our overt joint force approach, which provisions and sustains a balanced fleet postured through a two-ocean basing policy. As part of a joint force, the RAN is structured to apply maritime power, when required, to maintain freedom of navigation thereby preserve the integrity of sea-lanes vital to Australia. This is enabled by a continued focus on the use of submarines and major surface combatants, and, in the future, our air-warfare destroyers. Operating in the amphibious environment with land forces with our soon-to-be-introduced amphibious assault ships will allow us to respond to any shore-based contingency when required.
Rear Admiral Jean-Paul Robyns
Commander, Belgian Maritime Component
Belgium is a maritime nation with a merchant fleet ranked 22nd in the world in tonnage and having 75 percent of its trade move by sea. This trade has grown exponentially in recent years, and it goes without saying that energy shortages will accentuate it. Safe sea lines of communication and ports, primarily Zeebruges and Antwerp, will become more than ever a key factors to our country's economic survival.
The rise of piracy and terrorism is a genuine threat to the freedom of the seas, making investment in maritime security paramount. I strongly believe that our navies in years to come will play a major role and maritime security operations will gain importance.
To prepare for this mission, my navy started a transformation by acquiring multi-purpose frigates, modernizing our minehunters, and investing in very-shallow-water tactics and materiel. The new frigates constitute a major step forward for the Belgian Navy. Compared to the former E71 class, these ships are of a higher technical standard, with far better sensors, improved weapon and self-defense systems, and most important, helicopter capacity. We will embark the new NH90 helicopter. The frigates are multi-role and can engage in every scenario, including maritime security operations. In 2009 the Leopold I will participate in UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) with an embarked staff as we take command of the Maritime Task Force (MTF) from 1 March. The Louise-Marie will join Operation Atalanta in August, in the fight against piracy.
To improve our mine warfare capacity, we are engaged in a capability upkeep program—to be completed in mid-year—that includes a new command-and-control system, a self-propelled variable-depth sonar, a new hull-mounted sonar, and the Seafox mine disposal system. The first operational evaluations appear very promising. At sea, the hunters are supported by a command and support ship that will be replaced in 2015.
Furthermore, we are investing in a very-shallow-water antimine capacity with the Remus countermeasure system and divers. This system is under evaluation and should be augmented by other systems in the future.
Finally, we opened a new Maritime Information Centre at the Zeebruges Naval Base that focuses on all security aspects of our home waters. It is an interagency operation with colleagues from the police and Customs Department.
I believe that the Belgian Navy is taking adequate steps to counter the threat to our maritime security. This threat, combined with the drastically growing demand for energy and budgetary restraints, will make cooperation among navies a high priority. What we do together, we do better.
Rear Admiral Nils Christian Wang
Admiral, Danish Fleet
Denmark is heavily engaged in furthering peace and security across the world. We are ready to share responsibilities and risks, making international operations a prime task of the Danish armed forces. In addition, we are a significant maritime nation with strong regional, Arctic, and global interests and a very substantial merchant navy. Thus, the very complex, dynamic, diffuse, and unpredictable security environment, armed conflict, instability, transnational security issues, terrorism, piracy, access to and flow of resources, and climate change all pose threats, challenges, and risks with local, regional, or even global implications.
This can only be addressed through close multilateral cooperation, a dedicated effort, a wide-range of capabilities, and a comprehensive approach. The Royal Danish Navy has been heavily engaged across the full expanse of operations, most recently from Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, UN World Food Program, UNIFIL off Lebanon, to Task Force 150, where Commander Danish Task Group, from his flagship HDMS Absalon, took command from September 2008 to January 2009. This mission has clearly proven the Danish Task Group concept as well as the capacity of the multipurpose ships of the Absalon-class, with embarked armed helicopter and Special Forces with their rigid-hull inflatable boats (RHIBs).
On numerous occasions HDMS Absalon—in cooperation with coalition forces—prevented pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden, and on two specific occasions pirates were detained on board the Danish flagship. Piracy has serious implications on free trade and maritime security as such, and the lack of a legal framework for prosecuting pirates poses challenges. Furthermore, piracy and maritime crime should also be addressed ashore through capacity building and other long-term measures. Long-term solutions depend on the ability of all coastal nations to establish and maintain the necessary degree of maritime security in their own waters. This is why capacity building has to be an essential part of our common effort in furthering world maritime security. As a major seafaring nation, Denmark takes a specific interest in this area, and we are ready to do our part.
On a daily basis, the Royal Danish Navy is engaged in Arctic waters around Greenland, where climate change might have significant geostrategic, environmental, security, and safety implications; in Danish waters, where one of the busiest international chokepoints puts special attention on maritime domain awareness; and, when needed, in trouble spots around the globe, together with our allies and partners.
The navy is thus an important part of an active foreign and security policy, safeguarding our interests from the sea, if necessary by force. It requires a wide range of effective, flexible, deployable, well-equipped, and well-trained capabilities ready to deal with the threats and challenges where they emerge. With the Absalon-class multipurpose ships, our patrol frigates, and incoming high-end frigates as well as other assets, we are on the right track in being even more able to address the challenges, from humanitarian missions over capacity building and constabulary tasks to high-intensity operations.
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