Twenty eight years ago, in September 1991, after the Philippine Senate rejected a new military-bases agreement, the US Navy hauled down the American Flag in Subic Bay Philippines and vacated the Naval Base complex. The United States fulfilled its obligation to withdraw all US Naval forces, and ceased all US military operations in the Philippines.
For ten years, a serious conflict has been developing between the United States and China, as a result of the creation of missile and naval bases by China on Philippine claimed shoals and other reefs & shoals in international waters in the South China Sea, which is a threat to restrict the sea lanes of communication. In addition, China has been rapidly expanding its navy, in order to have the capability to fulfill its long range goal of threatening to invade Taiwan, unless it agrees to unite with mainland China.
For 8 years, the Obama administration did nothing to blunt the growing threat being posed by China in the South China Sea, and to oppose its increasing threats to Taiwan. The Trump Administration recognized the strategic threat posed by China, and the need to have shipyard repair availabilities for its ships in the Western Pacific. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been negotiating with the government of the Philippines to permit ships of the Seventh Fleet to operate out of seaports in the Philippines; he informed Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte that the US is willing and ready to honor its commitment to the Philippines under the 1951 U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT).
In order to maintain a continuous forward presence in the Indo-Asia Pacific region, without having a number of the ships of the Seventh Fleet always in transit the long distance from Western Pacific to Hawaii for shipyard overhaul, repairs, and availability, there is a need for the same type of adequate shipyard repair facilities in the Western Pacific region; that facility currently exists in Subic Bay.
That Subic Bay shipyard repair facility was created by the US Navy. After the US Navy vacated that facility in 1991, the facility was modernized with the investment of $2.3 billion by South Korea’s Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Company that operated there for 25 years; Hanjin’s parent company filed for Bankruptcy in 2017 and since then, the facility has been vacated.
Having access to the shipyard repair facility in Subic Bay Philippines would relieve ships of the US Seventh Fleet, the largest of the US Navy’s numbered fleets, from requiring an increased number of US Navy ships being deployed to the Western Pacific, from the US Navy’s projected fleet of 355 ships, to allow for a number of ships to be away, transiting to and from Hawaii for shipyard repairs.
China has been trying to drive a wedge between the United States and the Philippines, encouraging its Communist allies in the Philippines Senate, to terminate the MDT. At the same time, China has been negotiating with the government of the Philippines, to take control the Naval Base and the Shipyard Repair Facility at Subic Bay.
The below listed article by Captain Brian Buzzell, USN (Ret) the Navy’s Political-Military Officer formerly assigned to the Philippines, explains why, during this time in history, the Navy has a Golden opportunity to return to Subic Bay, where US Navy ships were once based and the fleet was welcomed for 94 years.
For the overriding strategic concerns discussed above, and the increasing threat that China poses to the United States and its allies in the Western Pacific region, the US Navy needs to return to the Naval Base and Shipyard Repair Facility complex in Subic Bay, Philippines.
Joseph R. John, USNA ‘62
San Diego
