January 2012

Washington Too - If the MoD (Navy) thought the Royal Navy was having a hard time of things with the politicos and paymasters it was clear that that their colleagues in Washington were facing much the same issues and faced impending cutbacks of some magnitude.   The US Congress was stumbling into the 2012 election and whatever the outcome the US military machine was to be rebalanced,

Iran was now front and centre with the Afghan commitment running down but still with a substantial number of men committed which would be rather exposed if the Iran situation became a hot.  Then there was the Chinese Carrier threat, but underlying both for an oil lead economy dependant of cheap imports was the economy!   There was a growing school of thought in the Pentagon that Europe and Mediterranean was no longer an area of concern and could be left to the “Europeans”.    The US Army in Germany is to be run down and the 6^th Fleet could become a shadow or paper organisation using passing warships to other theatres as it only serous components.  So in the next decade (or sooner) the following task Forces of the US 6^th Fleet could disappear from the NATO war room charts :-

·         Task Force 60 – comprising a Destroyer Squadron homeported at Gaeta (Italy).    This is the main 6^th Fleet's Battle Force to support any Carrier Strike Group entering the Mediterranean.

·         Task Force 61 – an Amphibious Assault Force with three amphibious ships and their embarked landing craft for the US Marines.

·         Task Force 62 – the Marine Expeditionary Unit (ie: the landing force) of 1,900 combat ready troops with its own integral armour, artillery, and helicopters.

·         Task Force 63 – the Logistics Force including the Military Sealift Command

·         Task Force 64 – the Special Operations element

·         Task Force 65 – another Destroyer Squadron – homeported at Naples (Italy).

·         Task Force 66 - the deployed Marine Expeditionary Unit

·         Task Force 67 – the land based Maritime Patrol Aircraft of the 6^th Fleet

·        Task Force 68 - the Navy Expeditionary Combat Force including Explosive Ordnance Disposal units, construction units and Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Teams

·         Task Force 69 - Submarine Warfare – the area submarine and anti-submarine warfare force.