US Navy to stand up 4th Fleet

From DefenseNews

U.S. Navy To Stand Up New 4th Fleet

By mark d. faram

Published: 24 Apr 13:33 EDT (09:33 GMT)

The U.S. Navy will create a 4th Fleet headquartered at Naval Station Mayport, Fla., and will tap a two-star SEAL officer to lead it, according to a Pentagon announcement April 24.

Rear Adm. Joseph Kernan, head of Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, Calif., has been chosen to command the new fleet. Kernan will take control of both 4th Fleet and the current Naval Forces Southern Command, the Navy component of U.S. Southern Command.

The command will oversee maritime operations in Central and South American waters, and is similar to the command structure of 5th Fleet, which is also Naval Forces Central Command.

"I am thrilled that the secretary of the Navy and [Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead] have chosen to stand up the 4th Fleet, with a focus on Latin America and the Caribbean," said Adm. James Stavridis, commander of the Miami-based SouthCom, the organization set to benefit most from the new numbered fleet.

"While I am clearly a joint commander in every sense, as an admiral, I am personally very pleased and proud to see the Navy stand up an organization like 4th Fleet to operate with partner nations in the region."

Stavridis said the Navy needs 4th Fleet in order to operate at a higher level than NavSouth does now. That extra layer of support, he said, "would allow a much better and more concerted response to problem sets that range from hurricanes to medical diplomacy to counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism kinds of operations. Speed is very important in all those scenarios."

The fleet, he said, will be focused on preventing and responding to mass migration of refugees, as has happened in the past in Haiti and Cuba, as well as interdicting the flow of illegal drugs and partnering with countries throughout the region.

"We will also seek to build the ability of the 4th Fleet to work with interagency partners like U.S. Department of State, [u.S. Agency for International Development] and Department of Homeland Security," he said.

Numbered fleet commanders have an official role in allocating training and resources. Stavridis said the move would result in a "small increase" in billets on the current Mayport staff, though he did not have specifics.

The extra layer of command also increases the stature of the Navy commander in U.S. Southern Command - a joint command - by adding what Stavridis calls an "appropriate counterpart" to 12th Air Force and 6th Army.

"I am likewise thrilled with the choice of a Navy SEAL for this important and expeditionary job," Stavridis said "He is the right officer for the challenging tasks in the region, and additionally has a strong sense of theater security cooperation and interaction with our partner nations."

Although he's a SEAL, Kernan isn't a stranger to the conventional fleet. As a junior officer, he served aboard the cruiser Horne.

Stavridis said anti-drug operations, humanitarian and cooperative training missions are expected to be the new command's primary engagements.

"One particularly important mission for the 4th Fleet will be medical diplomacy, as exemplified by the voyage last summer of [the hospital ship] Comfort, which conducted nearly 400,000 patient encounters during a four-month cruise to 12 countries in the region," Stavridis said.

This year, the amphibious assault ships Boxer and Kearsarge will "return on similar missions in the region this summer," he said, "all under the aegis of 4th Fleet."

When 4th Fleet stands up, it will actually be a reconstitution of a previous command. The Navy created 4th Fleet in March 1943 to oversee patrols of the South Atlantic for submarines and other enemy vessels.

The command lasted until 1950, when it was absorbed into 2nd Fleet in Norfolk, Va.