‘Oversubscribed’ US Navy leans more on coastguard to help counter China
- As the Defence Department shifts its focus to competing with Russia and China, the coastguard ‘brings some authorities below the threshold of war’
- ‘Realities in the South China Sea’ and the loss of two Navy destroyers in 2017 are helping to drive the shift
As a US coastguard cutter sailed through the East China Sea last month, Chinese vessels shadowed it on the high seas, service officials said. It was a reminder to the Americans of where they were: in a strategic area a couple hundred miles from China’s shores.
The situation underscored the evolving US response to the rise of China and the coastguard’s role operating missions typically closer to home. The coastguard is increasingly orienting itself toward China, senior officials said, by deploying new cutters, repositioning older ones and dispatching service members to countries such as Vietnam and Sri Lanka to help train those nations’ coastguards.
Admiral Karl Schultz, the coastguard commandant, said that as the Defence Department shifts its focus to competing with Russia and China, the Navy is “oversubscribed”.
The factors he cited include “realities in the South China Sea” and the loss of two Navy destroyers involved in deadly collisions in 2017.
“The coastguard brings some capacity to that equation,” Schultz said in an interview. “The coastguard brings some authorities below the threshold of war. We’re US warships, but we look different, with a white hull and an orange stripe.”