How Could US Navy, Japan, Australia & Philippines Stop China in South China Sea?

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

Could the US, Japan, Australia and the Philippines all together stop China’s large and highly threatening Navy over the South China Sea in the Pacific? It is certainly a complex and likely often entertained question, given the worsening threat equation in the Pacific theater and the explosive growth of the Chinese Navy.

Military leaders from the four countries recently met in Manila to explore options for increased collaboration, interoperability and joint, multi-national deterrence operations. As part of the meetings, all four major allied Pacific powers conducted a submarine hunting P-8A maritime patrol over the South China Sea, according to an interesting Navy report.

“During the flight, they were able to observe the maritime environment and discuss ways to increase interoperability, preserve regional stability, and maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the Navy report said.

Certainly leaders of these countries would regularly be inclined to discuss cooperation and interoperability in the Pacific, yet of greatest significance would be the interfaces, gateways and communications systems connecting the different militaries to one another.

While China may outnumber the US Navy in terms of sheer size, and perhaps only a fraction of the US Navy’s maritime combat power could be positioned in the Pacific at any one time, the collective effort of the US, Japan, Australia and the Philippines may indeed be positioned to thwart or destroy Chinese attacks, depending upon the level of networking, forward-positioned assets and speed of response time.

One way to support growing multi-national connectivity is through port visits and joint exercises, a reason why both Australian and US warships visited Manila at the same time.

“The meeting coincides with port visits by three of the partner navies to Manila: the landing helicopter dock ship HMAS Canberra (L02); the helicopter-carrying destroyer JS Izumo (DDH-183); and the amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA-6),” the Navy essay says.