The USS Stout, of the United States Navy, sails past the Statue of Liberty during the parade of ships in New York Harbor for Fleet Week in New York, May 20, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
America’s sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen are set to undertake another Fleet Week in Seattle on July 29th. These celebrations and community connections are much more than the awe-inspiring parades of ships, air shows, and conversations with those currently serving on behalf of the rest of us.
It is easy to forget many of these people spend as much time away as at home. And what they are doing has an outsized impact on how the rest of us go about our daily lives: free from worry about our safety or whether there will be enough gas to fill up our tanks, free to benefit from uninterrupted financial, banking, water, power and internet and communications systems, and free to enjoy remarkable access to virtually anything we want to buy on a moment’s notice.
Indeed, what these US military personnel do in far corners of the globe on a regular basis has a tangible and beneficial impact on virtually every American citizen.
- The US Navy-Marine Corps-Coast Guard team keeps the seas open and free.
The world’s oceans provide shipping lanes for commerce and cargo to move unmolested from their places of origin to the Amazon warehouse or small business or Wal-Mart in your home town. Over 90% of world trade by weight is transported by sea, including almost all commodities necessary for the basic operation of the global economy. The big rig trucks hauling containers across America’s freeways have usually picked those up at some major shipping port of entry in the US—ranging from fruit to sneakers to computer chips—to take these items to their final stop.
While the taxpayer investment in America’s global navy is significant at $150 billion last year, the presence of grey-hulled, US-flagged ships underpins $4.6 trillion dollars of waterborne commerce. That is roughly a quarter of our entire GDP, and supports 23 million jobs. Viewed in this way, each dollar spent on the US Navy returns $30 for the economic well-being of the United States.
By deterring would-be disrupters of the free and open oceans, the US Navy pays for itself twice over—of the $4.6 trillion in commerce, $321 billion is collected in taxes—more than double the Navy’s budget of $150 billion.
- US Navy presence in the South China Sea helps stabilize the world’s fastest-growing economic regions of South and East Asia, where tensions are growing.
The South China Sea is rapidly becoming the heart of global trade and economic development. The majority of oil used by Asian countries is shipped through the South China Sea, which itself hosts massive energy reserves. Even a temporary disruption of freedom of navigation in the South China Sea would be immediately felt throughout America.
When a labor dispute shut down ports on the West Coast in late 2014, businesses in the heart of America quickly felt the effects to the tune of $2 billion a day. The temporary shutdown cost Honda 25,000 cars, for example. Businesses canceled manufacturing orders as raw materials sat offshore waiting to dock and unload. But it was really small business owners and retailers dependent on reliable trade that were hurt the most, with shortfalls in products from coffee to curtains.
By serving as a floating insurance policy for the world’s interconnected economies, the US Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard work to keep costs down for consumers at home and allow us to buy what we want when we want it.
- American power in Persian Gulf waters provides stability for global oil prices.
One reason we are all enjoying lower prices at the pump gas this year is thanks to our sea services. Without America’s naval combat power stationed in the Persian Gulf to stabilize rising competition between hostile nations, Saudi Arabia could not have put pressure on Iran by increasing production despite flat demand, thereby decreasing global oil prices.
The vast majority of Middle Eastern oil is exported on tankers through the Strait of Hormuz—a geopolitical chokepoint that Iran frequently threatens to close off. A full 20 percent of the world’s oil transits through this narrow waterway passage, most of which fuels the rapidly growing Asian economies.
The US Navy maintains its Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf, which consists of a large carrier strike group augmented by a fleet of coastal patrol craft and a converted oil tanker used for special operations forces. The Navy also conducts regular patrols and maritime training with partners and allies in these waters to deter Iran and maintain full freedom of navigation.
After two instances of Iranian aggression against an American container ship and a Singaporean oil tanker earlier this year, the Navy began escorting US commercial vessels through the Strait to demonstrate its resolve. The Iranian Navy then stayed quiet until it tried to deliver supplies to Houthi rebels in Yemen as worries of a proxy war rise.
The only thing that caused them to change their minds and turn around was when the US Navy showed up.
- The Navy protects global communications and web access.
Grey-hulled ships floating on the high seas serve also to protect what is underneath the water and hidden from plain sight. 99 percent of global communications flow through undersea fiber optic cables. The critical importance of these cables to ordinary citizens was demonstrated in 2008 after earthquakes off the coast of Taiwan damaged cables and shut off internet service.
More worrying is intentional sabotage. In 2013, for example, several men managed to damage Egyptian fiber optic cables, causing a 60% drop in internet connectivity. Because most of the cables intersect at certain nodes around the world, they are attractive targets for terrorists, pirates, and other bad actors.
American businesses and citizens rely on smart communications for everything: receiving their paycheck through direct deposit from their employer—bypassing the snail mail and paper check; enjoying GPS in their car dashboards; listening to downloaded music with their ear buds; and communicating through stand-alone email and text, whether from a computer at work or the phone in your pocket. This could easily become one of those classic you-don’t-know-what-you-have-until-it’s-lost moments.
- The US military leads global anti-piracy efforts, which keeps the cost of goods down.
While the threat of piracy has been around since America was founded, and concerned our forefathers enough to reference it in the US Constitution, most citizens did not realize just how serious a problem it remained until Hollywood made Captain Phillips’ experience on the MAERSK Alabama a box office hit.
Whether off the coast of Somalia, in the Gulf of Guinea, or around the Indian Ocean, the US Navy and Marine Corps lead a truly global fight against piracy. In the Gulf of Guinea, the Navy provides technical assistance and training to partners. The Marine Corps is opening “staging posts” in Ghana and Gabon to train the elite rapid-response forces that will respond when terrorists or pirates hijack vessels in the Gulf of Guinea. Off the coast of Somalia, the US Navy leads Combined Task Force 151, which deters, prevents, and—if necessary—physically stops piracy.
The World Bank estimated in 2013 that East African piracy cost the world economy $18 billion—mostly through lost fishing and tourism revenue in the region to higher insurance premiums for shipping companies. These, of course, are passed on to consumers. At the outbreak’s low point, insurance rates had risen ten times in many cases. The rise of piracy in Southeast Asia—now hosting 75% of all robbery at sea instances—promises to dwarf the impact of Somali pirates, given a larger low income population and an easier operating environment.
The US Navy is continuously working with regional partners to preempt the escalation of piracy that occurred off the coast of East Africa before the threat was taken seriously by the international community. Back at home, the Coast Guard works to keep the Western Hemisphere free of piracy and illegal smuggling efforts, protect our ports, and provide assurance to anyone off the coast of America that rescue is on the horizon.
While we don’t often see our sea services at work, their missions directly contribute to our daily life. Sailors often joke that when they do their job well, they’re invisible—deterring adversaries, pirates, and smugglers is always preferred. But the effectiveness of our sea services should not undermine their importance—what they do enables our American way of life.
from AEI » Latest Content http://ift.tt/1D8AmzS
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