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In the next day or so a sleek, futuristic warship painted in newly-applied grey and black ‘dazzle’ camouflage will push off from a naval dock in San Diego, California, at the start of a voyage that will end in Singapore in about a month.
The USS Freedom, the first of the US Navy’s controversial Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) to be sent to Asia, is a new class of warship intended – as its name suggests – to operate on the ocean’s margins rather in the blue open waters traditionally favored by naval strategists and commanders. The tri-hulled catamaran USS Independence and two other LCSs are also due to be sent to Singapore over the next four years.
While the arrival of Freedom at Singapore’s Changi naval base for an eight-month ‘deployment’ will have no direct impact on naval dispositions or power within the Asia-Pacific region, it is set to serve a wider purpose for the US Navy.
Freedom’s formal mission includes conducting “maritime security operations, participat[ing] in international exhibitions and exercises to highlight US strategic intent in the region.” However, the less advertised purpose of the vessel’s time in Singapore is seen as running the technically troubled warship through its paces as far away as possible from the LCS program’s numerous critics within the navy and defence establishment.
LCS supporters will also hope the warship’s presence in an albeit ill-defined quasi-operational role will produce a positive public relations buzz around the vessel and the wider program. This latter point is evident from the decision to paint Freedom in a camouflage pattern not used on a major US Navy warship since the Second World War. The ‘dazzle’ pattern paint job is in essence naval theater as it has no practical military use in the age of anti-ship missiles, autonomous homing torpedoes and intelligent mines. Instead it appears an attempt to enhance Freedom’s mystique, while also concealing the dark smudges along the hull from the vessel’s engine flues….
Singapore has no doubt weighed the risks and rewards of hosting the LCS and probably assessed that the presence of warships that are either testbeds or de facto naval avatars – a strategically non-threatening manifestation of US naval power – will not destabilise regional ties or unduly concern Beijing.
However, what may prove more contentious is how Singapore extracts itself from the LCS arrangement if ties between China and the US deteriorate. While the present deal appears limited to Singapore ‘hosting’ the warships over eight- to ten-month periods at a time the overall agreement appears to extend at least until 2017.
Any change in the naval atmospherics in the region over this period, as seems almost certain given China’s recent actions and rapidly expanding warship construction program, may well lead Washington to request a more permanent presence for an LCS squadron and perhaps other vessels. Any such move, however, would place Singapore in a potentially untenable position. To accede to such a request would draw China’s ire – and perhaps that of Malaysia and Indonesia as well – while to deny the US access or support would threaten long-term ties with Washington. The presence and fate of warships throughout history have often proved catalysts in triggering or signalling events far greater than the sum of the vessels size or military significance. The loss of the USS Maine in Havana in 1898 led directly to the US Navy presence in Southeast Asia waters, while the arrival of the German gunboat Panther in Morocco’s Agadir harbor in 1911 helped push Europe towards war three years later.
The de facto presence of US Navy warships in Singapore on a permanent basis over the coming four years, regardless of the vessels’ capabilities and how the administrative details are presented, is set to mark a shift in how Washington’s and Singapore’s relationship may be perceived by other powers. How such perceptions are managed will prove a key challenge, particularly for Singapore, over the coming years.
The USS Freedom, the first of the US Navy’s controversial Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) to be sent to Asia, is a new class of warship intended – as its name suggests – to operate on the ocean’s margins rather in the blue open waters traditionally favored by naval strategists and commanders. The tri-hulled catamaran USS Independence and two other LCSs are also due to be sent to Singapore over the next four years.
While the arrival of Freedom at Singapore’s Changi naval base for an eight-month ‘deployment’ will have no direct impact on naval dispositions or power within the Asia-Pacific region, it is set to serve a wider purpose for the US Navy.
Freedom’s formal mission includes conducting “maritime security operations, participat[ing] in international exhibitions and exercises to highlight US strategic intent in the region.” However, the less advertised purpose of the vessel’s time in Singapore is seen as running the technically troubled warship through its paces as far away as possible from the LCS program’s numerous critics within the navy and defence establishment.
LCS supporters will also hope the warship’s presence in an albeit ill-defined quasi-operational role will produce a positive public relations buzz around the vessel and the wider program. This latter point is evident from the decision to paint Freedom in a camouflage pattern not used on a major US Navy warship since the Second World War. The ‘dazzle’ pattern paint job is in essence naval theater as it has no practical military use in the age of anti-ship missiles, autonomous homing torpedoes and intelligent mines. Instead it appears an attempt to enhance Freedom’s mystique, while also concealing the dark smudges along the hull from the vessel’s engine flues….
Singapore has no doubt weighed the risks and rewards of hosting the LCS and probably assessed that the presence of warships that are either testbeds or de facto naval avatars – a strategically non-threatening manifestation of US naval power – will not destabilise regional ties or unduly concern Beijing.
However, what may prove more contentious is how Singapore extracts itself from the LCS arrangement if ties between China and the US deteriorate. While the present deal appears limited to Singapore ‘hosting’ the warships over eight- to ten-month periods at a time the overall agreement appears to extend at least until 2017.
Any change in the naval atmospherics in the region over this period, as seems almost certain given China’s recent actions and rapidly expanding warship construction program, may well lead Washington to request a more permanent presence for an LCS squadron and perhaps other vessels. Any such move, however, would place Singapore in a potentially untenable position. To accede to such a request would draw China’s ire – and perhaps that of Malaysia and Indonesia as well – while to deny the US access or support would threaten long-term ties with Washington. The presence and fate of warships throughout history have often proved catalysts in triggering or signalling events far greater than the sum of the vessels size or military significance. The loss of the USS Maine in Havana in 1898 led directly to the US Navy presence in Southeast Asia waters, while the arrival of the German gunboat Panther in Morocco’s Agadir harbor in 1911 helped push Europe towards war three years later.
The de facto presence of US Navy warships in Singapore on a permanent basis over the coming four years, regardless of the vessels’ capabilities and how the administrative details are presented, is set to mark a shift in how Washington’s and Singapore’s relationship may be perceived by other powers. How such perceptions are managed will prove a key challenge, particularly for Singapore, over the coming years.
