Tag Archives: Law of the Sea

Asia-Pacific, Territorial and Law of the Sea Disputes

Toward a Harmonious Pacific through China-led, Confucian-based Maritime Law

February 20, 2015 Guest Author 3 Comments

What goals should the United States seek in the South China Sea? Trying to preserve the status quo – hoping that each country be ever content with its historic resources and territory – is simply unrealistic, as demographics alter populations and climate change alters fish stocks, river flows, and even the land under one’s feet, as sea levels rise. The U.S. feints at regional stability; yet advocating for peace while conducting military exercises with China’s neighbors, and arming those neighbors while proposing détente to their larger Pacific roommate, do nothing to turn down the temperature in an already overheated region.

Is there another way?

Interestingly, in response to China’s most recent provocative (or expansive, “salami-slicing”) efforts in the South China Sea, the affected countries have neither used, nor threatened, retaliatory military force. Perhaps they saw the lack of international military response to Russia’s actions in the Crimea and realized the futility of might against might, facing such a stronger force as China. Or perhaps they drew lessons from the international community’s decade-plus-long quagmire in the Middle East. At any rate, they went, instead, to the law, and to the United Nations, with the Philippines filing a 4,000-page case in March 2014, and Vietnam joining the case in early December. The case pends.

Chinese law is often seen by the Western world as a punitive weapon, wielded bluntly to reinforce the power of those with authority. I came face-to-face with this stereotype in 2010, when, aboard a U.S. Coast Guard high-endurance cutter, we hosted two Chinese shipriders from the Fisheries Law Enforcement Command (now part of the China Coast Guard), to cooperatively enforce an international moratorium on high-seas driftnet fishing. The shipriders’ knowledge of Pacific fisheries was extensive, and their insight into local fishing practices highly revealing; yet they were surprised by the professional and non-aggressive way we conducted fisheries boardings. Excessive force was unnecessary; the rule of law enabled us.

They were not the first shipriders I’ve met who were used to maritime law enforcement being far more aggressive in their home countries. The FLEC shipriders were fascinated to learn that the law not only empowered, but also restrained us: that it protected citizens’ rights, and even the rights of non-citizens. This is powerful.

Whence the origins of Chinese law? The legal tradition in China has grown, over centuries, from two roots: Legalism, which results in the often brutal applications of punishment seen in Western media; and, curiously, Confucian philosophy. While Legalism posits tough laws and harsh sentences to keep the populace controlled, Confucianism holds that laws should help a community achieve harmony (or “Li”); and that leaders are expected, by virtue of their status, to model the moral behaviors they want their people to emulate. This Confucian strain in Chinese thought provides an interesting and useful opening for influencing development in a new direction, toward a cooperative and harmonious maritime code of conduct in the Pacific.

How might China be convinced to develop such a code? After all, they are stronger than their neighbors: why handicap themselves? Yet economics suggests that selfish or destructive behaviors net a country less long-term economic growth and geopolitical power than mutually beneficial international actions.[1] This is the angle to play, enhanced by emphasizing the inherently Chinese flavor of a Confucian-based legal code. China has much to benefit by spending less on a military arms race and more on economic development: by cultivating harmonious relationships with their neighbors, they will create a stronger and more willing market for their goods, to keep driving the massive yet near-solitary economic growth engine keeping their political party empowered.

This is, perhaps, an audacious proposal, for it seeks through persuasion and a bit of flattery to encourage China to become a responsible maritime actor, on its own terms, by appealing to its history and pride. The U.S. could say: We can help you develop a comprehensive Pacific maritime legal framework; China-led, Confucian-based, for harmonious interaction with your neighbors and comprehensive regional prosperity.

Overly optimistic? Not impossible.

It is important here to focus not just on maritime law tactics (how to conduct a law enforcement boarding; how to apply various levels of force) but on strategy: how to build a framework for long-term, harmonious international maritime interaction. This could start at the military-to-military level, through engagements between China Coast Guard and U.S. Coast Guard counterparts. China Coast Guard leaders would be invited to observe, not only tactical-level boardings and operational-level maritime law enforcement planning; but also the legal aspects of preparing case packages, reviewing case law, and arguing cases in U.S. court. Discussions would cover both strengths and shortfalls of the existing U.S. and international maritime legal systems, expanding to cover differences between the type of maritime law enforcement the U.S. Coast Guard conducts, and the similar-but-different, non-law enforcement Maritime Interdiction Operations (MIO) conducted by both the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard to enforce UN resolutions. What elements of each should be integrated into a Pacific maritime “code of conduct”?

(Aug. 18, 2007) SHANGHAI, China - The crew from the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Boutwell trains with the China Coast Guard during the North Pacific Coast Guard Forum. (Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer Jonathan R. Cilley) — (Aug. 18, 2007) SHANGHAI, China – The crew from the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Boutwell trains with the China Coast Guard as part of the North Pacific Coast Guard Forum. (Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer Jonathan R. Cilley)

One of the benefits of a Confucian-based code of conduct for South China Sea ship interactions would be to assume all parties’ good intentions, rather than their ill-will. In a specific maritime rulebook supporting this code, potentially aggressive actions would be presumed, unless meeting certain hostile tripwires, to be honest mistakes, prompting mutual retreat. Furthermore, in order to discourage intentional “gray area” behavior, the tripwires would specifically reflect hostile intent – regardless of whether a military or civilian actor cross them.

Additionally, again based on Confucian philosophy, the greater the power, the more the responsibility to model ideal behavior. Thus, as the leading power in the region, the onus is on China to set the most moral and harmonious example in its maritime interactions.

This code of conduct would both complement, and expand upon, the existing COLREGS: for where the COLREGS guide navigational interactions, the expanded code of conduct would also cover “exploratory interactions” – when ships are not simply navigating from one port to another, but exploring, patrolling, conducting research, or otherwise operating intentionally but non-navigationally.

Concurrent U.S. Defense-State strategic regional engagement is also recommended, in which reductions in maritime tensions are coupled with increased diplomatic development, where the U.S. encourages countries with competing resource claims to develop bilateral or multilateral agreements for resource sharing and protection. The goal is to convince Pacific nations that sharing the pie doesn’t mean going hungry: instead, cooperation can reduce each country’s individual share of defense and production, while promoting labor specialization and national pride.[2] As a bonus for regional stability, the more countries invested cooperatively in an area, the greater their individual and collective desire to avoid any sort of conflict that might harm those resources, or take their production off-line.

Both the U.S. combatant commander and his country team counterparts should cooperatively emphasize Chinese-influenced, Confucian-based legal bases throughout the spectrum of their “defense, diplomacy, and development” engagements, as an overarching strategic theme. This is one way the U.S. can face China down in their game of “Go”:[3] from every angle, at every opportunity, seeds of a harmonious rule of law will be planted. While some efforts will be stymied or stifled, some seeds will grow, and ideally, this concept of law will begin to permeate Chinese society deeply enough that it cannot quickly be uprooted. And why should the Chinese tear it out? It will underpin their economic growth, protect their military from engagement, and cement their moral status as a 21^st-century great power.

Engagement surrounding the rule of law is a long-range play. The goal is not only a more peaceful, China-influenced, legal framework for the Pacific; but also to sow seeds of change for democratic evolution within China itself. Raising awareness within Chinese leadership that laws are not just sticks with which to beat opponents, but beacons of moral empowerment; that laws should guide leaders to act justly; that the rule of law can inspire a peaceful, communal patriotism; and that people at all levels of society can trust the law to protect them – these powerful democratic concepts can, over time, drive significant positive change within Chinese society: change that traditional military might not and political posturing never could achieve.

Facilitating a China-led, Confucian based, cooperative maritime-based rule of law could eventually be expanded to other contentious and competitive domains, including space, cyberspace, and even intellectual property – all areas that could benefit from an improved, shared, legal basis. And perhaps, success in this region of the world could be expanded to locally-led and -derived, rule-of-law-based engagements in other combative areas. After having seen such conflict and destruction on its many shores, we could at last look forward to a new era in which the Pacific is finally peaceful enough to be worthy of its name.

Lt. Heather Bacon-Shone serves in the United States Coast Guard, and has operational afloat experience throughout the Pacific. The views expressed herein are those of the author and are not to be construed as official or reflecting the views of the U.S. Coast Guard or Department of Defense.

[1] In economic terms, rent-seeking versus profit-seeking.

[2] In other words, a non-zero-sum game.

[3] “To update an old saying, ‘Russians play chess, Chinese play “go,” and Americans play poker.” In Reveron, Derek S. and James L. Cook. “Developing Strategists: Translating National Strategy into Theater Strategy,” Joint Force Quarterly, Issue 55, 4^th Quarter 2009, p. 21.

Global Analysis

Protecting the Exclusive Ecconomic Zone – Part II

November 19, 2014 Guest Author 2 Comments

Feature Picture: LÉ Samuel Beckett the latest OPV of the Irish Naval Service (Trilogy Corporate Site 2014)

Geographical and Oceanographical Factors

When designing OPVs the core question a nation will need to ask itself is how big in terms of area, where the EEZ is (i.e. Northern waters, or Equatorial waters), how far is it that area from the nation’s bases and how much is the EEZ worth. Vessels which are required to operate in stormy or icy waters (i.e. those operated by Denmark) will need to be as structurally strong and survivable as possible, with a high freeboard to help with large waves, as well as having as much of their equipment internalised as can be, and all equipment that can’t be internalised made easy to clear of ice. In contrast vessels which are to operate in warmer areas (i.e. to an extent France) will need enhanced cooling systems, not only to keep the personnel at a workable temperature, but also the computers and machines. A vessel which could find itself in both situations equally (i.e. those operated by Australia or Britain), will of course need both attributes; it is very difficult to retrofit sufficient cooling into a small ship built to be strong, equally it is very difficult to strength a ship that is not built to be strong. Simply put, a lot of thought needs to be placed at the very beginning of the conception and design process with OPVs as to what is needed, what is wanted and what is best to make sure: because there is not the space available to do much rectifying at a later date.

Figure 8. Denmark’s EEZ, total area of 2,551,238km² encompasses a large area of North Atlantic and the Arctic[i]

Figure 9. France’s EEZ totals in at 11,035,000km² and is spread all around the world[ii]

Figure 10. Australia’s EEZ, total area of about 8,505,348km² that straddles the South Pacific and Indian Oceans, whilst encompassing a large chunk of Antarctica[iii]

Supplementary Missions

OPVs, especially those deployed to patrol distant territories or honour commitments to allies, will often be the nation they represent first responders to natural disasters; therefore building a measure of preparation into the design, i.e. storage space for medical supplies, power tools, tents and portable water purification equipment would be of advantage. This is a situation where a nation has the opportunity to engage in a win-win scenario; they help another nation (nations are not altruistic but they do like to look good and earn favours), they get to build a closer relationship with the nation experiencing the disaster and that nation gets some help. Much the same can be said for an OPV’s role in Search and Rescue operations, most nations have some form of lifeboat organisation – whether it is part of the government, independent or a mix differs from nation to nation. OPVs are of course not lifeboats, but if they are present then they can again be crucial first responders, especially in the case of mid-ocean emergencies. There is though a war (or at least combat) orientated mission, which has been highlighted by the events of October 2014 in Sweden; anti-submarine warfare, or ASW[iv].

Figure 11. HDMS Ejnar Mikkelsen a Knud Rasmussen class OPV of the Danish Navy[v]

Now it is reasonable to pose the question ‘how useful could a vessel without a sonar (with the exception of the Danish Knud Rasmussen class[vi] which take advantage of stanflex technology[vii] to acquire one) or torpedoes be to an ASW operation, after all it isn’t a frigate?’ In fact OPVs, even those being proposed in this paper are not even corvettes (being closest in armament to a gunboats), do have something to offer ASW operations, especially those with the ability to support helicopters and operate UAVs. Helicopters have become the cornerstone of ASW operations; whilst Long Range Maritime Patrol Aircraft and ships with towed sonar arrays are very capable assets which really do make a difference: a legacy of the Cold War has been an almost dominance of helicopters in the practice of ASW[viii]. Helicopters of course make use of sonar buoys and dipping sonar to locate enemy submarines, such equipment could also be transferred in time to suitably capable UAVs – some of which are already in operation[ix]. This is in many ways an argument for building in flexible spaces into ship designs, as the one thing that can’t be easily added into a ship is space, yet it is space which serves best to future proof it.

It’s not only ships though that need to be future proofed, so do crews and commanders. Small ships, like OPVs, offer almost unique opportunities for navies to test out commanders at junior ranks with a fair amount of responsibility; at a far lower risk than if the achieve higher rank and untested make their mistakes when in command of far more expensive vessels. Furthermore, a naval commander will often find themselves acting in a diplomatic capacity[x] a fact which has been highlighted by Julian Corbett as well as other authors[xi] throughout the years. Therefore Command of an OPV, especially when despatched to the edges of an EEZ or to patrol distant territories will provide young officers a plethora of opportunities to develop their skills and gain vital experience in this role. The reason that OPVs are unique in this regard is because the other small vessel type, the mine countermeasure vessel (MCMV), is becoming more and more specialised – even as the equipment becomes more containerised and dependent upon unmanned vehicles (although divers retain a vital role in the work); meaning that command of such vessels acting in that role itself requires more and more specialised knowledge.

Possible Missions

“The unassailable political lessons of the Falklands are that disregarding a threat does not make it disappear”

James Cable[xii]

The same can be said for ships, and most definitely for OPVs – disregarding, or down playing the likelihood of circumstances that will require their capabilities doesn’t mean it won’t happen. Even in this work, there are possible missions which OPVs could be used for, beyond those it has discussed. For example, with a suitable CIWS, and dual-purpose deck gun these vessels could make a very much needed war time point defence assets for MCMVs, auxiliaries, ships taken up from trade[xiii] and amphibious ships (including landing craft). In a time of shrinking forces, these are not frigate or destroyer replacements, but they would be able to help; they are able to be the ‘quantity’. Which leads to another scenario for the future. That OPVs cease to exist as they are now, and that nations begin to pursue something more similar to where the Danish model has already gone.

Under this scenario the future is a ship of ~2400tons, with a range of 6-7,000nmi, and which in its basic OPV form is armed with probably either a 57mm or 76mm deck gun[xiv], a CIWS and two single 20mm or 30mm mounts, would carry a rotary UAV and have the ability to deploy and recover boats from a ramp. However, by making use of a system similar to that of the Stanflex modular system, can be quickly modified with additional modules[xv] to make it an MCMV, Oceanography vessel or Point Defence ship (with addition of self-sufficient surface to air missiles which don’t require specialist radar, like the C-Dome is reported to be[xvi]) as required by operation. Although to maintain those skills and to meet ongoing operational commitments some vessels would have to be virtually permanently tasked as the former two; with other ships taking over as required by maintenance. This is because as said above the work of MCMV vessels is particularly specialised, and requires a lot of practice to keep at the level it’s required for war time. Oceanography is of course and ongoing commitment, requiring its own cadre of specialised staff, and equipment, which are easier to leave in place as long as possible so they can ‘bed down’. This all though is not to mean that there are not significant requirements for British Patrol vessels, as Figure 12 (below) highlights; the British EEZ is very expansive.

Figure 12. Britain’s EEZ incorporates an area over 6,805,586km², and whilst world encompassing is concentrated in the Atlantic[xvii]

In the case of the Royal Navy which is currently upgrading its forces to seven River Class OPV’s, operates eight each of the Hunt and Sandown class MCMVs, two Echo Class multi-purpose survey vessels, representing a force of twenty-five ships. Now if all those ships were of the same design, then instead of it being seven OPVs, sixteen MCMVs and two survey vessels, it would be a pool of twenty five vessels (with operational cost savings from streamlining training and maintenance that could be twenty-eight, or even more should Britain continue its focus on reserves and decide to give the Royal Naval Reserve proper ships again[xviii]) that could be orientated as required by circumstance.

Now this is nothing new, the RN’s MCMVs already often do secondary duty as OPVs, and in fact the scenario outlined is to an extent (common hulls), what the Mine Countermeasures, Hydrography and Patrol Vessel (MCHPV) program envisaged[xix]. Unfortunately, and despite the publication of the Black Swan sloop Concept[xx], when the opportunity came to order three more ships for the OPV role – it was not this program which was sourced, but the existing River Class[xxi], suggesting that it has at least been put back if not having been sacrificed for the time being on the altar of the Type 26 Frigate. What is worse is actually the base design of the River class, with its proven track record, adaptability and RN operational experience, would actually (on the face of it) make the perfect base pattern for the MCHPV to be built from. Britain though would not be the only nation which could benefit from such a design, so could other nations such as Japan, South Africa, India, Australia and Canada.

All those nations are nations which are building themselves up in the maritime sense, they have to really, as the world has got more complex and sources of danger have diversified the necessity to protect what is theirs has grown. For the Japanese who have a strong escort force they would be most likely less interested in the point-defence adaptability, but considering their ‘peacetime’ problems of East China Sea EEZ patrol and probable war time issues with mines an adaptable force could prove a very workable and cost effective solution. For Australia and Canada with such vast areas to cover in such hostile seas then the more OPVs the better, more importantly with their relatively small force sizes, some second tier fighting ships might well be an attractive foundation on which to grow operational capabilities. India which has for a long time prided itself on being the strongest Asian naval power, is now facing challenges and a future where there are now easy strategic choices or even black & white decisions – making procurement of a flexible asset of the form of OPV/specialist duty vessel a more practical methodology of future proofing.

This is though beginning to sound similar to a ship design which has dominated American procurement discussion in recent years, the Littoral Combat Ship or LCS[xxii]. This was billed as the go everywhere, do everything low level combatant. Which has become its millstone, because it was supposed to be a jack of all trades it is good at none. Everything was designed from scratch, tailor made to fit this new class of warship. Unfortunately that design included a fixation on stealth, primarily because of the ‘Littoral’, meaning close to shore, in its name. The important difference between the LCS, OPVs and even what is being proposed is that the latter two vessel types are not supposed to do everything. The whole way through this work a constant refrain has been, ‘not a frigate’; OPVs do not need to be stealthy to the extent of the LCS, they do no need multiple hangars or even custom equipment – because that level of equipment is not needed by their mission set. Everything that an OPV needs, even the adaptable ship proposed in this section, is procurable ‘off the shelf’ – theoretically offering governments the opportunity to keep very tight control of the costs because they are known in advance. Even with all its capability the LCS has because of its failure to be able to do everything, had its procurement cut short and the USN are now looking for a frigate. One of the options for which is actually an upgraded version of the Coast Guards National Security Cutter[xxiii].

Figure 13. the Austral’s Independence class LCS, the second of the two designs, its trimaran hull form and distinctive menacing stealth design has already made it a feature of cinema, but also make it cost wise firmly in the frigate classification, despite its limited weaponry[xxiv].

Figure 14. Russian Steregushchiy class corvette[xxv], the Russian equivalent of the LCS, it bristles with weapons and is not really adaptable: these vessels (like the Chinese Type 056) are most definitely small warships rather than a patrol vessel.

Conclusion

“…the greatest value of the Navy will be found in events that fail to occur because of its influence”

Prof. Colin Gray[xxvi]

As has hopefully been shown these words of Prof Gray could be the watchwords for OPVs. Whether in terms of design or employment, the mission of such a vessel is to prevent events from happening through their own presence, and through the influence that being present gives a nation.

At the beginning of this work a very simple question was asked, ‘What do OPVs need to be able to do, to do what they do?’, the answer unfortunately is not so simple. The first part of the question though that needs to be answered is actually the second. This is because what a ship does is ultimately the crucial overarching idea which must dictate their design. In theory the OPVs overarching design idea is to be able to maintain their nation’s EEZ through patrolling, and maximise their nation’s security in general through presence. The trouble is that, whilst put like that it sounds like a two plus two sum scenario, the reality as has been discussed is far more complex. There are reasons that the Nigerian OPV version of the Chinese corvette displaces 300tons more; to start with it is operating primarily in the South Atlantic rather than the more gentle waters of the Pacific, beyond this is the fact that whereas the corvettes can call in support of larger ships – the Nigerian navy hasn’t yet reached that point. This serves as an example as to why it’s so difficult to compare one nations OPV to another’s, as every nation has unique needs, and an its own global perspective which will impact upon what they think they need, therefore what they build.

This complexity then feeds into the first part of the question, for if a vessel is conceived to carry out a primarily fishery protection role then it’s armament beyond machine guns becomes rather unnecessary; if however it is likely to be facing off with other nations warships – then perhaps it needs to be more corvette/small frigate, less OPV. The trick for any nation will be in getting the balance right, because getting it wrong will be far more expensive in lives and treasure. To get it right though then a nation must first properly gauge the threat that its ships will likely face, and just as importantly what level of support they are likely to receive – for a ship that will be on its own and only receive support under the best of circumstance must by necessity be more self-sufficient than one for which possibly overwhelming firepower, medical support or stores are just a beep away.

OPV are because of all this a very revealing class of vessel to watch, by this it’s meant that a nation’s choices will demonstrate much about what their intentions are. The longer the endurance of an OPV the more a nation would seem to be intent on achieving constant presence within their EEZ. This though is not answering the question, the answer to the question is that once a nation has decided what it needs to do, and what it wants to do then it must equip its OPVs accordingly; but they can’t go too far wrong if that OPV is equipped with UAVs, a decent deck gun, a CIWS, the appropriate sensors and possibly most importantly the ability to rapidly deploy and recover boats. Everything beyond that is up to the nation involved.

Dr. Alexander Clarke is our friend from the Phoenix Think Tank in the United Kingdom and host of the East-Atlantic edition of Sea Control.

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[i] (Wikipedia 2014, Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) 2009)

[ii] (Wikipedia 2014, Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) 2009)

[iii] (Wikipedia 2014, Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) 2009)

[iv] (Marzal 2014)

[v] (www.prismdefence.com 2010)

[vi] (CASR 2008, naval-technology.com 2014)

[vii] (Seaforces.org 2014) – this is a brilliant system which allows for a whole range of mission modules to be changed in and out re-rolling a ship in a matter of hours; advantages of this system include reducing maintenance & upgrade costs – by being able to carry out the work inside at a pace dictated by the work, not by the need to get the ship back to sea. The problem with it are that whilst it is really a better version of ‘fitted for not with’ (a famous phrase attached to many RN vessels), as the ships can be fitted very quickly, a small ship will always be restricted to being a general specialist rather a general purpose ship. That though is really not that big a bug to bear.

[viii] (Holmes 2014, USN 2014)

[ix] (Clarke, August 2013 Notes: Possibilities of Future RN AEW 2013, Clarke, August 2013 Notes: UAVs = Cruise Missiles = UAVs… what does the future look like for Navies? 2013)

[x] (Clarke, August 2013 Thoughts: Naval Diplomacy – from the Amerigo Vespucci to a Royal Yacht 2013)

[xi] (J. S. Corbett 1911, Lord Chatfield 1942, Cable, Gunboat Diplomacy 1919-1979, Political Applications of Limited Naval Force 1981, Mahan 1987)

[xii] (Cable, Britain’s Naval Future 1983, xiii-xiv)

[xiii] Which have been a part of warfare forever, and have been a core part of war time planning for many years – as best displayed in the work the USN did on War Plan Orange (Miller 1991, 86-99)

[xiv] In the case of the UK which seems to have enforced a no new gun policy, then there would seem to be a perfect opportunity for some inter-service collaboration, the new army 40mm gun would seem ripe for a sea going conversion, and whilst not being much better than the 30mm option, it would provide a better than nothing increase whilst not requiring a new gun.

[xv] Optimum number would probably be two – four, depending upon whether the CIWS and Deck Gun were also modular installations or were traditionally emplaced.

[xvi] (Eshel 2014)

[xvii] (Wikipedia 2014, Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) 2009)

[xviii] Yes this may look a little ‘pie in the sky’ in the light of recent decisions, but considering even a cursory glance at what this force is required to do includes:

Provide presence/maritime security patrols in the Caribbean, Gibraltar and the Falklands; the only one that a standing OPV presence is maintained at the moment is the Falkland’s, with the Caribbean being covered by a Bay class auxiliary, and Gibraltar having something only when it’s passing through.
Fishery Protection/Counter Terrorism patrol of the UK; the OPVs are constant alert for this, whilst Scotland maintains its own Fishery Protection vessels, they don’t do counter terrorism.
MCMV patrols in the Middle East, Faslane for the Strategic Deterrent, Portsmouth for the Carriers and Plymouth for the Amphibious Task Group; possibly the most overworked vessels in the fleet, with
Survey Ships are often either doing or doing the equivalent of around the world voyages in order to maintain up-to-date maps of the oceans beneath the waves to support ASW and submarine operations.

When that is considered, alongside the fact that many of these commitments requiring multiple ships, it could make anyone wonder how the RN manages it with a force of just 25 vessels – which are not ‘interchangeable’ as those proposed would be.

[xix] (naval-technology.com 2012)

[xx] (Ministry of Defence 2012)

[xxi] (Navy News 2014)

[xxii] (Defence Industry Daily Staff 2014)

[xxiii] (Axe 2014)

[xxiv] (Defence Industry Daily Staff 2014)

[xxv] (naval-technology.com 2014)

[xxvi] (Royal Navy 2014)

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Global Analysis

Protecting the Exclusive Economic Zones – Part I

November 18, 2014 Guest Author 2 Comments

Feature Picture: LÉ Samuel Beckett the latest OPV of the Irish Naval Service (Trilogy Corporate Site 2014)

Introduction

Maritime security is at its heart an exercise of risk reduction, action deterrence and event response – no nation ever has enough resources allocated to enable its forces to be everywhere they need to be all the time. So in reality defence and security has become a bit of a mirage; aiming to look more substantial and solid that it actually is. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the circumstance of maritime security, and the protection of a nations Exclusive Economic Zones, or EEZ. An EEZ is the area of sea/sea bed that a nation administers, for want of a better phrase ‘owns’, and therefore can control/monetize the extraction of resources (such as Fish, Gas, Gold or Manganese) from, and which are becoming increasingly important to national economies – in fact their societies as a whole. However, a nation cannot control or monetize anything if it doesn’t actually have control of it, and just as a city cannot be policed from the secured, nor a battlefield secured just from air[i], neither can an EEZ. Due to this, a specific type of vessel has not so much appeared (as navies have always fulfilled the role with other vessels) as evolved as the areas required to be patrolled have expanded. Although instead of reviving one of the old names, Brig, Sloop or Swan, as was done with ‘Frigate’ in WWII, a name based upon the role the vessel carries out has been generated; OPV.

OPV is of course an acronym, and stands for Offshore Patrol Vessels a name which whilst being apt is also a little bit of a let-down; especially as with the expansion of EEZs across the world these vessels might be better termed Ocean Patrol Vessels, or perhaps even EEZPVs. That however is long past the point of debate, what is not though is the role that these vessels fulfil for the nations which operate them. Whether they are naval patrol ships or coast guard cutters, OPVs can be usually be defined as vessels which displace less than 3,000tons, are capable of operating in open ocean, and which are the maritime presence equivalent of the ‘police foot-patrol’ (or ‘bobby on the beat’), fulfilling a similar position in terms of maritime security. They are not therefore, nor can they ever be, ‘frigate replacements’^{^[ii]}, but they are vessels which have a different mission spectrum that brings its own requirements in terms of armament, equipment and sensors.

These factors are of course dictated primarily by their projected mission profile. However, whether or not the nations possess vessels other than the OPVs, for example as in the case of Australia, Britain, France and Japan with frigates and destroyers; their OPVs do not need to be as well armed as nations for which OPVs constitute the primary surface vessel type. Furthermore, there can also be factors of internal or inter-governmental politics which can have an impact as to how a ship is designed – for example depending upon whether the vessels are domestically constructed, equivalent of the foreign ministry might well have influence as to where they are constructed. Beyond these factors are can also be things like tradition (possibly better termed habit). These are all things which factor into a design, many are not entirely relevant to the question as they have no direct bearing on what OPVs do. There is though, an impact on design which must be discussed, for both its negative, as well as positive impacts – and that is the matrix planning system.

Key:

Civil or military threats calling upon MACA (Military Aid to Civil Authorities).
Terrorist outrage – may be multiple, internal or external in origin.
Piracy, hijack, kidnap and ransom – may be multiple.
Terrorist threat from abroad – may be multiple, currently from fundamentalist tinder points of Islamist extremism and their fault-lines with the UK.
Major terrorist attack (on the scale of 9/11, or an enhanced Mumbai).
Cyber attack de-stabilising critical national infrastructure / defence functions.
Imperative to contribute to international peace-keeping or stabilisation.
Serious interference with shipping.
Serious interference with airways.
Politico-military threat to Falkland Islands and South Atlantic dependencies, and their EEZs.
Threat to UK dependencies generally, and their EEZs.
Imperative to help defend an ally under attack by a third party.
Major airborne attack on UK from sea or another land-mass.
Serious threat of nuclear attack on UK by another nation.
Credible threat of invasion of UK.

Figure 1 – The Framework for an objective comprehensive Strategic Defence Review, published by UKNDA February 2010 – Senior Author R.Adm Jeremy Larken DSO[iii]

Everything looks so neat and ordered in matrix, the world is nicely divided up and in many ways it as excellent representation of what is needed for what missions – unfortunately there is a problem with it. The world itself is not so neatly divided up. There is no way of factoring what a government wants to be able to do in comparison to how much it is willing to pay. It can in many ways also become a substitute for proper operational planning and analysis, as individuals fall back on “well this is what the matrix projects is likely to happen” logic. Why is this a specific problem for OPVs? This is because the majority of what they do either doesn’t have a place on the matrix, or fits in the Minor or Limited categories.

There is also the point that while something may be unlikely, that if someone had asked the question in 1913 ‘will there be a World War starting next year which will last five years, cost millions of lives and see the emergence to practicality of whole evolutions of equipment?’ – the answer most likely would have been a no. However, while an event might only be predicted to happen just once in a hundred years, will it happen in year 19 or year 99 of that 100 year span? What was the likelihood that the next World War would take place a little over two decades after the first? This creates a problem, because if something isn’t going to happen for a long time according to odds, it becomes very tempting to cost conscious governments with bills to pay to think they can put it off till they need it. The reality is though with procurement cycles taking twenty plus years before equipment enters service this can have a big impact, as something as complex as a warship cannot be procured overnight. This is an impact most visible when considering vessels at the opposite end of the spectrum of naval warships.

In 1967 when the British government made a decision not to procure aircraft carriers^{^[iv]}, they certainly didn’t believe that less than fifteen years later they would be fighting a war which was entirely dependent upon naval aviation^{^[v]}. In 2010, when the British government again decided that an aircraft carrier capability gap was necessary (without taking the precaution of arranging cover); who would have predicted the Arab Spring, Syria, the rise of the Islamic State, the Ebola Crisis, and Russia acting up? These and all sorts of other minor crises where organic carrier air power wouldn’t have necessarily been the first response, but would have been very useful as a bedrock capability from which to conduct/lead/support operations and project influence.

In the case of OPVs, it’s more complicated to show, as so much of what vessels of this type do is only really shown when they’re not there to do it. It’s like the security guard or the police officer walking the beat^{^[vi]}; what value can be placed on the crimes which are not committed because the would-be perpetrators decide to go elsewhere for less risky pickings? These though are concepts which are readily understood, the concept and role of an OPV is less understood, because unlike the police officer walking his patrol, or the security guard at the entrance, people see them every day – they are the familiar shapes, a recurring presence, that makes many feel safer. Unfortunately for OPVs much of their work is not only beyond visual range, it is so far over the horizon that many lack any comprehension of what they do; a situation compounded by the fact that much of what they do is definitely not eye-catching or dramatic enough for modern revenue driven news media to pick up and put on television, the news-stands or online.

Primary Mission – Protecting & Patrolling the EEZ

When discussing the bounty of the sea, the first thing which will occur to most people is fish, and fishery protection, i.e. the enforcement of quotas, rights, and ground. Now these can all become complicated when looked at in detail, but in reality it comes down to the question of ‘who fished what, where?’. This is therefore a mission which requires an OPV to maintain very good situational awareness of its patrol area, and the ocean beyond that. To do so it will probably need to be able to receive and process large volumes of data from external sources, i.e. international systems like the European Maritime Surveillance Network[vii]. Finally of course when they do find vessels which are contravening the rules, or look suspicious they need to be able to deploy and support ship search teams in order to examine that vessel more forensically than is possible by radar. Fishery protection has developed a harder edge in recent years, probably starting with the second and third ‘Cod Wars’ between the United Kingdom and Iceland[viii] ; but progressing significantly now with events in the South[ix] and East China Seas[x] where fishing vessels and their protection of fishery rights has become almost a proxy for territorial (or EEZ) expansion at the expense of neighbours territorial rights[xi]. That this might induce repercussions and copycat actions in other parts of the world, is something that nations can only discount at their own peril.

Design Requirements of Fishery Protection:

Surface Search Radar.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)[xii] for wide area search, and visual inspection (as well as to allow the OPV to visually monitor activity from out of sight/beyond visual range) – it can also be used to provide look down/blind side cover for search teams entering potentially dangerous situations.
Ability to deploy & recover boats quickly; recently this has led to vessels, OPVs in particular, having ramps at the stern so that instead of using a crane or davits to launch and recover the boats which takes time and is very difficult, they literally let the slip off the stern and recover them the same way.
Ability to interface with a wide variety of external data sources

Bold = not previously mentioned

Fish though are not the only bounty of the sea, oil, gas, as well as many other minerals and ores are all to be located and extracted from it[xiii]. With the modern understanding of the environmental impact of such activities, and combined with their sometimes great distances from land mean that for governments the mission of oversight is both very important and very complex. OPVs and other naval vessels will often be a principle methodology of government in keeping over watch over these activities. There has also been in recent years, growing examples of nations using Rigs, as well as fishing fleets, to try to expand or strengthen their claims to watery territory. This has been most recently seen in the South China Sea[xiv], but have also been a feature in disputes between the United Kingdom and Argentina in the former’s EEZ around its Falkland Island Territory[xv], as well as Africa. The fact is once rigs are in place they are very difficult to remove without damaging that which a nation would wish to preserve or causing an all-out conflict; therefore the best method of dealing with these threats is by prevention – which requires presence. Put another way, if possession is nine-tenths of the law[xvi], and it is possessing the sea that a nation can draw sustenance from the sea, the presence is how a nation shows and maintains that possession.

Figure 2. USCGC Waesche (WMSL 751), the second of the US Coast Guard’s National Security Cutters to enter service, shown in this picture with KRI Sultan Iskandar Muda (SIM 367) and KRI Banda Aceh (BAC 593) a corvette and landing platform dock of the Indonesian Navy[xvii].

Design Requirements of Resource Protection:

Surface Search Radar.
UAV, again for wide area search and to enable the OPV to rapidly get eye’s on any potential situation.
Ability to deploy & recover boats quickly.
Ability to stay on station for long periods of time, in range of adverse weather conditions.
Potentiality of lethality – more important than for fishery protection, to deter the potential for adverse events a ship involved in this mission needs some capabilities for defence.

Bold = not previously mentioned

Trade protection is a mission set which is both larger than Fishery Protection and Resource Protection, but at the same time more narrow. In the ‘peacetime’ context of navies, it is a counter piracy, counter-interdiction/interdiction, Freedom of the Seas and navigation which for the pillar groupings of this mission set[xviii]. Furthermore, unlike the previous two mission sets there are just as definite advantages to using larger ships than OPVs for some operations, as there are definite advantages to using OPVs for them[xix]. Before examining the capabilities required though it is probably best to define three of the missions, as whilst piracy and its resulting counter-piracy missions regularly make the press, counter-interdiction and Freedom of the Seas missions are not so frequent. Interdiction and Freedom of the Seas could be confused as the same mission, as both involve disruptions through trade – however, whilst Interdiction refers to undue checks being imposed or a targeted mission by a nation on a specific merchant vessel (i.e. if the Argentinians had tried to stop the oil survey ship conducting its mission in the Falklands EEZ that would have been an Interdiction) whereas Freedom of the Seas refers to a more ‘blanket’ denial of movement. Due to these differences though the level of justifiable response (or proportional response[xx]) and international response can be very different (as after all a Freedom of the Seas situation would most like generate a multi-national task force response) and therefore require different things from the nation, so obviously require different things from its ships.

The advantages of larger ships is of course greater endurance, more firepower, more personnel/space to do things with and most importantly they are a bigger statement of interest – something which can be especially important when the mission is Freedom of the Seas orientated. On the other hand though smaller ships can establish precedent, and the self-defence armament of an OPV could be viewed as ‘less provocative’ – although at the same time this means they could be less able to protect themselves if something goes wrong. In the end for such operations it might well be in the future, depending upon the threat level judged sensible to have the OPV do the actual Freedom of the Seas demonstration or Counter-Interdiction while a larger vessel (probably a destroyer as that would be most suitable due to its area air defence capability) stands off to provide support. This though is not the only role for which there are advantages on both sides.

Counter-interdiction is arguably the most complicated mission, and one which has been a far more frequent occurrence than Freedom of the Seas. Interception of specific vessels or a specific nation’s vessels by another nation can be an attractive policy; for example the activities of Argentina with British survey vessels (which are announced but not carried out)[xxi], China with American intelligence ships[xxii] or Israel with Gaza[xxiii]. In the case of each of these nations, the policy has been weighed up and found to be advantageous – the problem though for other nations is how to prevent interdiction. This can be a very sensitive mission, in the case of Britain it is arguable that it was the presence of naval ships in the region, the OPV HMS Clyde[xxiv] and the ‘Atlantic Patrol Tasking South’[xxv] – a frigate or destroyer and an auxiliary, that discouraged the Argentinian Government from active interdiction rather than using diplomatic efforts to passively impact operations by getting other nations to deny access to ports[xxvi]. This is a form of interdiction which is of course not able to be solved by modern definitions of ‘gunboat diplomacy’[xxvii] due to modern perceptions on the action of nations; but the Argentinians stopped at these more passive measures. Just as counter-interdiction is a role for OPVs, so is interdiction itself; primarily from the perspective of counter smuggling operations – the smaller size of an OPV in relation to other naval ships allowing it to get closer to shore to support its boats if a smuggling vessel tries to make a dash for it through shallow water. These though are principally (or worst case scenario in terms of interdiction) state-on-state issues, the other two pillars, navigation and counter-piracy, are of course non-state in origin.

Figure 3. HMS Clyde on patrol in the South Atlantic[xxviii], often her and her crew are the only British presence for hundreds, if not thousands of miles; this is not an unusual situation for an OPV to find itself in and therefore has to be a principle consideration in their design.

Navigation, could seem a strange addition in the age of satellites capable of providing accurate measurements of a ships position down to the nearest meter anywhere on the globe. Unfortunately, not all ships have that technology; although such a state is becoming increasingly rare. Still though navigation is important, especially in making sure ships stay in their ‘correct lane’. This might seem strange but in the oceanic choke points like the English Channel, Straits of Gibraltar, Strait of Malacca and Strait of Hormuz, there are so many ships that that the effect of leaving their lane would be much the same as a car driving the wrong way on a busy road – mayhem. Whether it is down to inaccurate navigation equipment, engine malfunction, steering difficulties or human factors, much the same as with cars on the road, the authorities have to resolve the issue. This mission is exacting on a ship, it requires it to be powerful and strong so it can act as a tug if necessary, it needs to be able to operate in all weathers and sea states and its needs to be reliable so will need to have perhaps even more redundancy built into it that normal ships. Despite the disasters which have happened when governments haven’t been adequately equipped for navigation events, it is the non-state trade protection role of counter-piracy the garners most attention.

Whether on the East or West Coasts of Africa, the Singapore Straits (or further up into the Straits of Malacca) or in the Caribbean[xxix] piracy impacts on not just the way ships are operated, but costs of shipping insurance is increased, some shipping lines are turning to armed guards others using naval architecture – and all these costs will inevitably be passed on to consumers. The role of OPVs in this is course obvious, they are not about tackling the causes of piracy (whether that is economic weakness, greed or politics), but about providing a cost effective presence to deter potential pirates by raising the potential cost for them. The fact that so far it is usually a frigate or destroyer that nations have deployed, is not only testimony to the almost explosive capability boost that can be offered to OPVs by UAVs (and the benefits of organic air power enjoyed by most modern escort vessels), but also to dearth of vessels available to (especially western) navies after the post-Cold War ‘peace dividend’[xxx]. Furthermore, OPVs are due to their more limited equipment, considerably less expensive to acquire, so for those nations which wish to not rely upon other nations to provide counter-piracy cover in their waters, they represent a more viable option than even perhaps a more war orientated small vessel such as a corvette.

Design Requirements of Trade Protection:

Surface Search & Air Search Radar.
UAV, again for wide area search and to enable the OPV to rapidly get eye’s on any potential situation, providing a beyond visual range detection system to monitor for possible small craft movements, and of course giving cover to boarding teams.
Ability to deploy & recover boats quickly.
Ability to stay on station for long periods of time, in range of adverse weather conditions.
Strong hull and powerful engines in order for the vessel to be able to act as a ‘tug’ and take large merchant vessels under tow.

Bold = not previously mentioned

Border patrol, just as with land borders and air space, a nation has to patrol its maritime borders; such an action is enshrined in Fishery and Resource protection roles, but in reality is its own set of missions.

When a nation challenges another by entering its national waters[xxxi], there are of course various responses available to most nations – but the most effective is of course an ‘equivalent’ or ‘proportional’ response. Put another way, whilst aircraft can overfly a ship, they have to return to base, whereas a ship can shadow, can if necessary send a party across to enquire in person as to what is happening; in simple terms a ship is a far stronger response to a ship, even if smaller, as long as it’s able to keep up and stay on station, protect itself if some suddenly changes and fly’s the flag high that will all count for a lot. This is not just something small nations have to contend with, for example in 2014 Britain dealt with two separate incidents, one involved HMS Severn (one of Britain’s River class OPVs) having to escort Russian Landing Craft through the English Channel[xxxii]. However, when the Russian aircraft carrier, Admiral Kuznetzov[xxxiii], and its task group enacted a similar performance Britain of course required a ‘bigger presence’ therefore HMS Dragon (a Type 45 Destroyer[xxxiv]), the Fleet Ready Escort[xxxv], was called upon[xxxvi].

Figure 4. Chinese built Nigeria OPV, based on the Type 056 Corvette design[xxxvii]
Figure 5. Chinese Type 056 Corvettes[xxxviii], the Chinese answer to the problems of maritime border patrol, well-armed, produced in large numbers and soon to feature ASW versions[xxxix].
Design Requirements of Border Patrol: Surface Search & Air Search Radar. Ability to deploy & recover boats quickly. Ability to stay on station for long periods of time, in range of adverse weather conditions. A Close in Weapon System, probably of the gun/laser variety as that is less demanding in terms of technology support than a missile system, and a main gun preferably with a calibre of 57mm or higher so that they present a capability: the fitting of anti-ship missiles or torpedoes would only really be necessary in a navy which doesn’t have larger ships – and would also turn the OPV into a Corvette. Self-Sustaining; it is important that backups are built into the systems on the ships as well as spare parts, because operating at a distance from home means if anything goes wrong an OPV’s crew will need to be able to take care of themselves. Bold = not previously mentioned
*Figure 6. HMS Severn* alongside HMS Belfast on the Thames (Author’s Own Collection) – Britain’s tools of Presence Past and Present.**

Another diplomatic role that OPV’s have to undertake is that of ‘presence’, showing the flag, port visits, etc. Presence is about demonstrating a visible and most importantly ongoing commitment to a region, with the aim of promoting stability and protecting national interests. This is a mission which all naval ships are required to carry out, because by the nature of the presence mission, quantity becomes a quality of its own[xl]. This is because each visit represent an opportunity to build relationships. The more that can be done to build, and strengthen, relationships, the greater the foundation that will be constructed for the exercising of diplomatic power (sometimes referred to as informal or even soft power). This matters because in the world of shrinking defence budgets, relationships with the potential that they represent for co-operation, information and alternative options, could well be crucial either by having better intelligence to enabling heading off of potential troubles before they become trouble, or being able to respond more efficiently/prepare forces when trouble happens.

Design Requirements of Presence:

Entertaining space & enhanced (in comparison to that required purely for crew) Catering facilities.
Advanced communication systems, to enable vessels to act as rapid conduits for information gathered.
Ship needs to be well appointed, kept in good order, and preferably look efficient
(in case of an OPV) Sufficiently well-armed to present itself as a capable, if not necessary threatening, adversary.

Bold = not previously mentioned

Counter-terrorism is its own area because it is a growing problem, despite their similarity to, and often overlap with, counter-piracy missions. This is due to the fat that whereas counter-piracy missions have a degree of predictability about them (enabling scalable resources to be deployed in the vicinity), terrorist missions are not as predictable; most importantly the difference is in motive. Piracy is about financial gain, if it happened on the high street it would be called robbery; terrorists might seek financial gain to support operations, but they are not motivated by it. Furthermore, whilst traditionally the deployment of marines or naval infantry with machine guns have been sufficient augmentation of firepower to deal with any eventuality this will not always be possible[xli]. Another difference is in comparison to pirates, as time has gone on terrorist organisations have been growing in terms of equipment, firepower and training; currently this has mostly been felt in terms of land conflict[xlii]. However, it can only be a matter time before these organisations or similar take to the sea[xliii].

The reason this is so, is because of the value of targets available in comparison to the relative lack of security, and the likely response times of government forces must make them attractive. Should these forces take even basic anti-tank missiles, or surface to air missiles, to sea with them, then many nations could find the lightly armed OPVs they have in service literally overwhelmed. Even at current levels, in order to have enough firepower aboard them, then under most circumstances either the nation will have needed to be forewarned, or it will be scrambling to react to events – and the ships themselves will not have enough of the ‘right’ personnel (i.e. marines or equivalent) to effectively deal with the situation.

Design Requirements of Counter Terrorism:

Need to have the space aboard to accommodate, support and sustain a rapid increase in personnel at very short notice.
A flight deck large enough for a medium or bigger helicopter to land/refuel/take off, in order to facilitate rapid transfers of personnel.
Increased firepower from remotely operated weapons systems, to provide protection for crew (+ capability if either the extra personnel do not arrive in time and/or to counter increased terrorist firepower[xliv]) and a scalable response to principle weapon system.

Bold = not previously mentioned

Figure 7. P840 HNLMS Holland, lead ship of the latest class of Dutch OPV’s, at 3,750 tons, they are bigger than some navies frigates: but with a crew of 50 and space for 40 more, a hangar that can accommodate a medium helicopter, a 76mm Oto Melara Super Rapid main gun, a 30mm Oto Melara Marlin mounted in its ‘B’ position, supplemented by two 12.7mm Oto Melara Hitrole and six 7.62mm machine guns (the only manually operated weapons), when this is combined with an impressive sensor suite and a range of 5000nm at 15kts they represent a significant capability[xlv].

To be continued in Part II

Dr. Alexander Clarke is our friend from the Phoenix Think Tank in the United Kingdom and host of the East-Atlantic edition of Sea Control.

[i] (Masi 2014, Agencies 2014)

[ii] The nation most likely to face such a notion would be the UK, and really it shouldn’t as its current escort strength of nineteen frigates and destroyers is already well below that which is required by its patrol and task group commitments; it’s also a very strange situation to be in, as for example when the US Coastguard buys cutters, the USN navy doesn’t get told to buy less escort vessels, so why does the Treasury in the UK. Although this is not a recent phenomenon, John Ferris in his 1989 book Men, Money and Diplomacy; the evolution of British strategic foreign policy, 1919-1926 (published by Cornell) highlights the sometimes circtacious and often illogical in terms of naval or military strategy interventions by those seeking to secure the public purse – interventions which nearly always end up costing vastling more in the long run; something which has been well illustrated by story of the Queen Elizabeth II class (naval-technology.com 2014, Tovey 2014). As said above and a point which will be reiterated; OPVs and Frigates are very different ships, one is a relatively cheap maritime patrol asset, the other a high value anti-submarine asset that is capable of providing task group point air defence, naval gunfire support and viable anti-ship platform.

[iii] (Larken, et al. 2010, 17)

[iv] (Friedman 1988, 327-44)

[v] (Clapp and Southby-Tailyour 1997, Woodward and Robisnon 2003)

[vi] In this scenario, Maritime Patrol Aircraft are a sort of mobile CCTV equivalent, in the right conditions can provide identification, and are a sort of deterrent; but short of warfighting scenarios where they can actively engage targets they have limited capabilities to carry out the sort of missions discussed by this piece, e.g. unless they are seaplanes they can’t launch and recover boarding teams.

[vii] (European Defence Agency 2014)

[viii] (The National Archives 2014), recommend look up the history of the Turbot Wars

[ix] (BBC 2014)

[x] (Smith 2012)

[xi] (Dingli, et al. 2013, Hosford and Ratner 2013); interestingly the 1985 Plenary meeting of the Chinese leadership focused on hegemonism and expansionism as being primary causes of limited war – something they felt more likely to occur than full scale nuclear conflict (Tien 1992, 277). This can be read as especially interesting, considering recent the Chinese naval boom (reference), because as has been discussed since Julian Corbett wrote his Some Principles of Maritime Strategy 1911, the only truly limited war is that which takes place between two island powers or those separated by the sea (J. S. Corbett 1911, 48).

[xii] Rotary Wing UAVs are most likely (with current technology) probably the best choice, as whilst small fixed wing/net recovery UAVs like Scan Eagle (Insitu 2013, Defense Industry Daily 2014, Boeing 2014) offer much in terms of surveillance, the idea of ‘crashing’ any aircraft with live weaponry into anything when it can be justifiably avoided is illogical. The result could well be that OPVs end up carrying a mixture of such unmanned aircraft, maybe even more than their larger brethren as their role (which often include being on their own far away from support) depends upon maximising both the image and impact of their presence.

[xiii] The value of the sea’s resources have been known and understood for a long time, to such an extent that Sergey Gorshkov, Admiral of the Soviet Union used as a central platform for his arguments for the Soviet Union to build a stronger navy (The Sea Power of the State 1980, 6-27)

[xiv] (TheGuardian 2014, Tiezzi 2014, Heydarian 2014)

[xv] (Russian Times 2013, Drury 2010, Halliday 2014, MacErlean 2014)

[xvi] (Horrell 1991)

[xvii] (United States Government Work 2012): Whilst the National Security Cutters are included in this study, as they are OPVs in role and armament; in reality with a displacement of 4500tons they exceed some navies’ frigates in size.

[xviii] In ‘wartime’ it becomes arguably one of the most muddied and brutal parts of the conflict, and also is one of those areas where not a lot can be one, but everything can be lost (Bacon and McMurtrie 1940, 140-56). It is also an area of naval work is often difficult to ‘sell’ to political classes and the wider public, especially in times of financial hardship (in the 1920s & 1930s this brought out significant political skill and bargaining in the Admirals of the day (Babij 2009, 172)) – as Trade protection is possibly the least ‘insurance’ looking defence spending of any part of the defence budget, it is entirely deterrence and response. As such, when it works well no on notices it, and when it goes wrong the losses cannot be easily remade. The fact which makes getting it right, or at least the forces available as capable as possible, so important.

[xix] In a different time, there was a very wide ranging debate over the merits of cruisers, because within the limits of treaties they could either be made good for battle or good for trade protection, one requiring speed and firepower, the other requiring endurance and seaworthiness (Field 2004, 30-8). It is rather similar with the modern debates of Frigates and OPVs (especially the larger vessels of this type, like the French… and the USCG National Security Cutter); neither is actually really suitable for the others role, and it is an artificial argument when they are set up against each other.

[xx] (Anzalone 2010, Beehner 2006, Keiler 2009)

[xxi] (Russian Times 2013, Drury 2010, Halliday 2014, MacErlean 2014)

[xxii] (Shanker 2009, BBC 2009, Tyson 2009); but they Chinese have also despatched their own vessels to monitor multi-national exercises, even ones they are participating in (BBC 2014, LaGrone, China Sends Uninvited Spy Ship to RIMPAC 2014)

[xxiii] (Palmer, et al. 2011, Spelman 2013)

[xxiv] (Royal Navy 2014)

[xxv] (Royal Navy 2014)

[xxvi] (Gardner 2011)

[xxvii] (Cable, Gunboat Diplomacy 1919-1979, Political Applications of Limited Naval Force 1981)

[xxviii] (Royal Navy 2014)

[xxix] (Comcercial Crime Services 2014)

[xxx] (Marshall 1993)

[xxxi] (Cable, Gunboat Diplomacy 1919-1979, Political Applications of Limited Naval Force 1981, 193-258)

[xxxii] (Corcoran 2014)

[xxxiii] (Clarke, Carriers; Fully Loaded – Admiral Kuznetsov 2009)

[xxxiv] (naval-technology.com 2014)

[xxxv] (Royal Navy 2014)

[xxxvi] (Farmer 2014, Bannister 2014, Royal Navy 2014), a similar incident took place with Australia in 2014, when a Russian Task Group positioned itself in international waters to the north of the country – requiring the response of multiple Royal Australian Navy ships (LaGrone, Australian MoD: Russian Surface Group Operating Near Northern Border 2014, Dean, Lee and Noble 2014, BBC 2014, Dearden 2014, Pearlman and Parfitt 2014).

[xxxvii] (defenceweb 2014)

[xxxviii] (Chinese Military Review 2013)

[xxxix] (Rahmat and Hardy 2014)

[xl] (Clarke, October 2013 Thoughts (Extended Thoughts): Time to Think Globally 2013)

[xli] As the Egyptian Navy itself discover recently when a patrol boat engaged what are presumed to have been smugglers (LaGrone, Egyptian Patrol Craft Attacked by Ships with Possible Ties to Terrorist Arms Trade 2014)

[xlii] (Beaumont 2014, Paul Bremer III and Sonnenberg n.d., Council on Foreign Relations 2013)

[xliii] In fact it seems to have taken place whilst this work was being written, (LaGrone, Egyptian Patrol Craft Attacked by Ships with Possible Ties to Terrorist Arms Trade 2014)

[xliv] Some nations seem to already be taking this in to account, for example the Dutch Holland Class (navyrecognition.com 2013) and the Danish Knud Rasmussen Class (naval-technology.com 2014)

[xlv] (navyrecognition.com 2013)

Strategic Outlook

Choosing Sides or Choosing Peace? U.S. Strategy in the South China Sea Dispute

October 24, 2013 Guest Author 2 Comments

The National Interest on Monday published an intriguing article by Ted Galen Carpenter discussing the potential implications of President Obama’s current South China Sea (SCS) strategy. During the East Asia Summit, where the President was forced to send Secretary of State Kerry in his place so he could focus on the government shutdown, Secretary Kerry took a supportive (some would say meddling) position in defense of Manila stating that “all claimants have a responsibility to clarify and align their claims with international law. They can engage in arbitration and other means of peaceful negotiations.”

Although many welcome America’s “pivot” to Asia, many more are trying to grasp what that really means. Does it mean greater military presence, more economic influence? Or, as Carpenter’s article suggests, taking sides in the sovereignty disputes in which most of the tension in the region is moored? Before drawing conclusions that Secretary Kerry’s statement provides some sort of clue, it would be prudent to examine what the arbitration filing actually is and what it requests.

For background, the United Nation Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) provides a dispute-settlement regime that requires signatory States, such as China and the Philippines, to resolve their disputes peacefully: first through negotiation, and then if that doesn’t work, States can choose from four options. These options include submission of the dispute to the International Court of Justice, to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, conciliation, or go to an arbitral tribunal. Without delving into too much procedural detail, the arbitral tribunal is usually the most attractive because it allows the States to choose who their adjudicators will be.

So what does supporting Manila’s arbitral filing suggest with regard to interpreting the Obama Administration’s position in the dispute? To figure that out comes down to determining what the Philippines is really asking the arbitral tribunal to do. Whereas the underlying tensions of the dispute relate to which State owns what island, Manila has cleverly requested that the tribunal restrict its judgment to something much more precise. Specifically, the arbitration request doesn’t ask the tribunal to determine ownership on a historical basis per se, but that it only clearly establish the sovereignty rights of the Philippines under UNCLOS due to the claimed non-island status of the reefs and shoals. The Philippines have requested the tribunal to:

a. declare that China’s rights in regard to maritime areas in the SCS, like the rights of the Philippines, are those established by UNCLOS;

b. declare that China’s maritime claims in the SCS based on its so-called “nine-dash line” are contrary to UNCLOS and invalid;

c. require China bring its domestic legislation into conformity with its obligations under UNCLOS;

d. declare that Mischief Reef and McKennan Reef are submerged features that form part of the Continental Shelf of the Philippines under Part VI of the Convention, and that China’s occupation of and construction activities on them violate the sovereign rights of the Philippines;

e. require that China end its occupation of and activities on Mischief Reef and McKennan Reef;

f. declare that Gaven Reef and Subi Reef are submerged features that are not above sea level at high tide, not islands under UNCLOS, not located on China’s Continental Shelf, and China’s occupation and construction activities on these features are unlawful;

g. require China to terminate its occupation of and activities on Gaven Reef and Subi Reef;

h. declare that Scarborough Shoal, Johnson Reef, Cuarteron Reef and Fiery Cross Reef are submerged features and are “rocks” under Article 121(3) of UNCLOS;

i. require that China refrain from preventing Philippine vessels from exploiting the living resources in the waters adjacent to Scarborough Shoal and Johnson Reef;

j. declare that the Philippines is entitled under UNCLOS to a 12nm territorial sea, a 200nm Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), and a Continental Shelf under UNCLOS, measured from its archipelagic baselines;

k. declare that China has unlawfully claimed, and has unlawfully exploited, the living ad non-living resources in the Philippines’ EEZ and Continental Shelf;

l. declare that China has unlawfully interfered with the exercise by the Philippines of its rights to navigation and other rights provided under UNCLOS;

m. require China desist from these unlawful activities.

Note: China has refused the arbitration request. Annex VII, Article 9 of UNCLOS, however, provides that “if one of the parties to the dispute does not appear before the arbitral tribunal or fails to defend its case, the other party may request the tribunal to continue the proceedings and to make its award. Absence of a party or failure of a party to defend its case shall not constitute a bar to the proceedings.”

Although the Philippines did not request that the tribunal resolve the sovereignty claims directly, it does ask it to determine a very significant issue: whether the disputed features are rocks or islands. In these instances, the Philippines believes determinations that they are not islands would further its aims. For even if China retained ownership it would minimize the extent of China’s territorial claims under international law. This is because under UNCLOS, rocks only get 12nm of territorial seas. Islands, however, get 12nm of territorial seas AND 200nm of an exclusive economic zone. This is why each and every island/rock matters and why there is so much at stake. It’s critical to remember that the fight is not over what is on the island/rock, but the resources in the water column and shelf surrounding the island/rock.

Turning back to the Obama Administration’s SCS strategy, Secretary Kerry’s statement may be interpreted in at least two-ways. The statement could suggest support of Manila’s sovereignty claims and therefore the U.S. would be taking sides. The statement could also suggest support of Manila’s right to argue their claims under international law and therefore the U.S. would be supporting a peaceful settlement of the dispute in an international forum rather than a regional one. Carpenter’s article does an excellent job of describing the potential implications if the U.S. strategy included choosing sides. On the other hand, if the U.S. is supporting Manila’s right to argue their claims under international law, the implications for the U.S. could be a loss of credibility. It continues to remain harmful for the United States, especially in the SCS context, to keep suggesting that this dispute ought to be settled under UNCLOS because the U.S., due to political reasons in the Senate, has yet to ratify this critical treaty.

LT Dennis Harbin is a qualified surface warfare officer and is currently enrolled at Penn State Law in the Navy’s Law Education Program. The opinions and views expressed in this post are his alone and are presented in his personal capacity. They do not necessarily represent the views of U.S. Department of Defense or the U.S. Navy. This article is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice.

Center for International Maritime Security

Tag Archives: Law of the Sea

Toward a Harmonious Pacific through China-led, Confucian-based Maritime Law

Protecting the Exclusive Ecconomic Zone – Part II

Geographical and Oceanographical Factors

Supplementary Missions

Possible Missions

Conclusion

Bibliography

Protecting the Exclusive Economic Zones – Part I

Introduction

Primary Mission – Protecting & Patrolling the EEZ

Choosing Sides or Choosing Peace? U.S. Strategy in the South China Sea Dispute

Fostering the Discussion on Securing the Seas.