European Navies Sailing to Secure Indo-Pacific

European Navies Sailing to Secure Indo-Pacific

Italian Navy photo

China’s military buildup and increasingly hostile behavior in the Indo-Pacific region is no longer just a concern of the United States, Japan and Australia — European nations that also rely on free and open trade routes are looking at what ships and technologies they can deploy in the region.

“As European-Atlantic countries, surely we should focus on our own backyard,” U.K. Royal Navy Commodore and British Embassy naval attaché Roger Readwin said during a panel discussion at the Surface Navy Association’s 36th National Symposium, citing what he called an “oft-misquoted misconception.”

European countries not only have a vested interest in the Indo-Pacific, but are and have been intrinsically linked to the region, he said.

France, for example, has “specific interests” in the region, Capt. Jean-Olivier Grall, French naval attaché, said — starting with its 1.5 million French nationals scattered across its overseas territories, making regional stability and security a “core sovereignty and security interest.”

Maritime trading routes are vital to European countries, and the Indo-Pacific accounts for more than 60 percent of global gross domestic product, and about half of international trade crosses its waters, he said.

“Because of globalization, we all rely on those supply chains,” he said — a fact that navies can hardly ignore, “as it is one of their historical core tasks: to protect those trade routes.”

When considering contributions to a secure Indo-Pacific, navies across the globe need to consider a balance between resources at home and what is “proportionate and appropriate” to the situation, Readwin said. However, the United States and many allies have concluded that the balance needs to shift in the direction of the Indo-Pacific.

While the U.S. Navy has had an established presence in the region since what is now called Indo-Pacific Command was stood up in 1947, the White House’s 2022 Indo-Pacific Strategy said both the United States and “much of the world” have viewed Asia too narrowly “for centuries” as an area of geopolitical competition.

“Allies and partners around the world have a stake in its outcomes,” the strategy stated. “Our approach, therefore, draws from and aligns with those of our closest friends. … We do so at a time when many of our allies and partners, including in Europe, are increasingly turning their own attention to the region.”

As European nations work to integrate with U.S. efforts in the Indo-Pacific, two concepts inevitably emerge: interoperability and interchangeability.

“I think there is sometimes a confusion between interchangeability and interoperability,” Grall said. “At its core, interoperability is being able to operate and basically fight together side by side.”

Interchangeability is often associated with compatible equipment, he said, “but there’s actually much more than equipment to that interoperability and that ability to fight together.”

Grall quoted Adm. Michael Gilday, retired U.S. naval officer and former Chief of Naval Operations, who once cited the French Carrier Strike Group’s command takeover of U.S. Task Force 50 as an example of interchangeability — what he meant, Grall said, is that “the ultimate goal of interchangeability is that any of the allied assets can actually take over one specific function … in any operation. So, that ties into more than just the question of equipment.”

It also ties into exercises, training, tactics and procedures, he said, noting that European navies are “quite used to working” with the U.S. Navy’s Fifth and Sixth Fleets, which use NATO procedures and publications. “Those publications are not used in the Indo-Pacific, and so this is probably where we need to work — procedures, communications, tactics.”

Learning to speak the same technical and procedural languages is part of interoperability, and information sharing is key, Capt. Marco Bagni, Italian naval attaché, said.
The Italian navy launched an initiative 20 years ago establishing a virtual network connecting maritime operation centers of member navies. The system allows sharing of selected unclassified information related to merchant shipping.

“What this means is effective instruments that can enhance maritime situational awareness, of course, but basically strengthens mutual trust, builds confidence among shareholders and furthers the safety of seafarers,” Bagni said. This information sharing model “could be a tool to promote global understanding and active cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.”

The Italian navy participated in a series of high-end training events with the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group in the Ionian Sea last October “to increase interoperability as NATO allies and strengthen regional stability in the Mediterranean region,” a U.S. Navy release said.

Italy’s Cavour Carrier Strike Group — pending political approval — will be deployed to the Indo-Pacific region for six months beginning in June, Bagni said. The carrier strike group will also participate in Australia’s Exercise Pitch Black this summer — a biennial three-week multinational large-force employment exercise conducted from Royal Australian Air Force Bases Darwin and Tindal.

Bagni said exercises and cooperative deployments provide both improved training and “real-life operations,” improving cooperation and understanding of procedures.
Italy will add the U.S. Navy-led Rim of the Pacific Exercise — the world’s largest international maritime warfare exercise — to its list of global campaign participation for the first time this year.

“Of course, when we talk about interoperability and interchangeability in the Indo-Pacific region,” participating in exercises is the best way to improve it, he said.
Bagni said the Italian navy is working with the U.S. Navy on “multiple opportunities of interaction” and exercises with the U.S. Marine Corps, the Royal Australian Navy and the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force.

French naval participation in the region includes the “Mission Jeanne D’Arc” amphibious ready group, an integrated at-sea exercise in the Western Pacific in June 2023 with the United States, Japan and Canada and a permanently deployed frigate in the South Red Sea, Grall said.

While Norway has been investing in its own naval assets such as new submarines, F-35 combat aircraft, P-8 maritime patrol aircraft, MH-60 Romeo helicopters and unmanned mine warfare systems, bringing them to the Indo-Pacific is easier said than done.

Capt. Egil Vasstrand, Norwegian naval attaché, said his navy has the intention to deploy a frigate to the Indo-Pacific as part of the British Carrier Strike Group in 2025. The small nation relies heavily on partnerships to make an impact in the Indo-Pacific, he added.

“Despite all our investments … the armed forces depend on being a part of NATO, together with having strong bilateral relationships with close allies and partners,” Vasstrand said. “The Norwegian navy will never have a force with sufficient capabilities to cope with all its potential requirements.”

Norway, like many other countries, is trying to boost capacity through the development of unmanned systems, he said.

Several European nations are looking to deploy unmanned systems to the Indo-Pacific in coordination with the United States and its allies in the region.

“I would like to emphasize the importance of continuing [to develop] advanced unmanned capabilities,” Vasstrand said. “This will be as important in the Indo-Pacific as in the Euro-Atlantic area.” An example, he said, is the underwater domain “with all the critical infrastructure challenges like fiber cables and oil and gas pipelines. You can find such infrastructure on the seabed all over the world.”

While no specific systems were discussed, Vasstrand said the Norwegian navy plans to mix crewed and uncrewed systems and transition from traditional mine countermeasures to unmanned autonomous systems.

Bagni said the Italian navy’s focus on developing unmanned systems is also in the underwater domain, where there is “deep concern about security over our underwater fiber lines and pipelines.”

“It is definitely complex,” Grall said of operating robots in the mine warfare and seabed domains. “And it is even more so when you add that, for instance, you will want to deploy unmanned undersea vehicles from an unmanned surface vehicle. So, that adds a layer of complexity.”

The U.S. Navy has dedicated training exercises to this very challenge, including portions of Rim of the Pacific and U.S. Pacific Fleet’s second multi-domain unmanned capabilities exercise last May in San Diego. The exercise focused on “proving the concept of unmanned systems employment to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific,” a U.S. Navy release said.

Capt. Dan Brown, assistant chief of staff for experimentation at U.S. 3rd Fleet, said in the release, “Successfully integrating unmanned platforms provides our commanders with better options to fight and win in contested spaces.”

Grall said the current crisis in the Red Sea, Russia’s war in Ukraine and the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas show that “no substantial crisis nowadays can remain contained geographically, if that were ever the case. So there’s no reason to believe that a crisis in the Indo-Pacific wouldn’t have important ripple effects across the region and beyond.”

As such, a rules-based international order is a global concern, he said, and “holds, as the name suggests, because it’s international. So the corollary is that erosion of that order in one area may affect it globally. We are all custodians of that order, whatever the location.” ND

Topics: Navy News, Maritime Security