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发帖数: 6973 | 1 Transcript: Interview with Admiral Gary Roughead, US chief of naval
operations, on January 14 2011 at the Pentagon. Financial Times (FT), Jan 19
, 2010.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/993b0ca4
-234d-11e0-8389-00144feab49a.html
My comment:
(1) Based on the interview, two reports appears in today's newspaper.
(a) Richard McGregor, US fleet chief voices doubts on Chinese navy. FT, Jan
19, 2010.
(b) Jeff Dyer and Richard McGregor, Beijing builds navy to hold US at bay.
FT, Jan 19, 2010.
(2) Notes to the transcript:
(a) chief of naval operations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_of_Naval_Operations
(the highest ranking officer in the United States Navy (unless the chairman
or vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is a naval officer) and is a
member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.[1] The CNO reports directly to the
Secretary of the Navy"
Note: Secretary of the Navy in US is always a civilian.
(b) Plan in British (or PLAN in American English) stands for PLA Navy.
(c) Admiral Roughead states, "They [PLAN] have been talking about this [anti
-acess mechanism] for a long time, being about to operate and indeed fight
in, in their terms, * * * And as I deal with my navy, I don’t want to be
denied options."
on one's own terms: "in accordance with one's wishes : in one's own way <
prefers to live on his own terms>"
Both definitions are from www.m-w.com.
(d) In the next breath, the admiral says, "But I also would submit that * * *
submit (vt): "to put forward as an opinion or contention
charge is not proved>"
(e) The admiral opines, "We highlight in our strategy two areas that are of
primary importance to us as a navy – the western Pacific and the Indian
Ocean region and the Arabian Gulf – because that in my mind is where global
prosperity is going to be generated from. That doesn’t mean that we are
not engaged elsewhere.
(f) Make no bones about. The Phrase Finder, undated.
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/make-no-bones-about.html
(g) The admiral also says, "If we jumped on every new weapon that came out
and looked at it through a straw * * *
Look at it through a straw is identical to Chinese phrase 以管窺天: look in
a very limited scope.
(h) Commentiong on "counter measures against the Chinese build-up and their
anti-access measures," the admitral replies,
"I would say that we are the pre-eminent navy in anti-submarine warfare and
we are also the pre-eminent navy in integrated air and missile defence, to
include ballistic missile defence. That is why we are being tapped to lead
the phased adaptive approach in Europe – because we have those capabilities
. Submarines are also an anti-access capability, but we have been doing anti
-submarine warfare pretty much since the submarine came into being
(i) In response to the question that "excitable headline writers like to
talk about the ASBM [anti-ship ballistic missile] as a game-changer. Is that
accurate?"
The answer: "I think it is a bit of an overstatement. [Unlike land Iand-
based TARGETS], I would submit the beauty of naval forces is their
flexibility, and the challenges of finding, targeting and then hitting them.
It is a new capability and a new application of a ballistic missile
(j) The admiral remarks, "I would say that [5 years ago] when I made that
comment that they were much further ahead of where a lot of the estimates
would put it. But as you get into higher-end capability, I am not so sure
that the rate of acceleration is the same. When you start moving into higher
-end capabilities, the incremental improvements are harder, more costly and
more complex. * * * I speak from my own experience in that regard of eking
out increases in performance at the high end and in complex areas.
Note the past tense of the first sentence.
(k) Regarding "whether you should have further targets for forward basing in
the Pacific. Do you see that as desirable or necessary?"
The admiral maintains "we have a forward-deployed naval force in Japan.
Having an aircraft carrier in Japan is like having 2½ aircraft
carriers at a home port stateside. We position some submarines forward in
Guam. Again that is a multiplier of force structure.
(l) The reporter hints in a question: "I was quite struck to hear talk on
arriving here to hear discussion of the possibility of having more bases in
Asia. Some people refer to this as 'places not bases,' not of the kind that
you see in Yokosuka or Guam or Okinawa."
The admiral did not directly answer, except by mentioning Dubai and
Singapore.
(m) The admiral sticks to his gun:
"There is no question that there is a difference of opinion as to what we
can do in an EEZ Exclusive Economic Zone; with China]. I am very comfortable
with the position we have. It is in accordance with UNCLOS. We are doing
what we are legally allowed to do.
(n) Refering to China's aircraft ambition, the admiral asserts:
"My expectation is that they will have one. I think they will want to move
to an indigenous one. * * * the fact that the Chinese are building one
speaks a little about of the value of them. The other part is – having an
aircraft carrier is one thing. Knowing how to operate it and being very
competent in those operations is something very different. The other aspect
that comes into play is the capacity of aircraft carriers is not the same
and the power you can generate is not the same. We have moved into the super
carrier realm. We generate a lot of capacity off of that.
(o) China has begun calling the South China Sea a core interest. The admiral
concludes,
"We tend to think in the US in terms of sea lanes. We pull 9 per cent of our
protein from the oceans. In Asia, it is about 26 or more. * * * Fishing is
something we tend not to think of.
Perhaps the reporter was surprised by the answer, so he presses adhead, "
Most tend to think it is about undersea resources?" |
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