U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently said that though there are budget cuts and war-weary voices in the States, the United States will not stop expanding military involvement in the Asia Pacific region, the United States will deploy new Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) in Singapore, and carry out more exercises with Australia. At the same time, he edgewise expressed strong concern on China's development of anti-ship missiles and other "anti-access" strategies. He said the United States will improve its ability of sea-air joint operations in response. The speech was given in a Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, on June 4.
Gates said the United States will continue to develop sea-air battle plan, to strengthen and expand its operational capability outside Japan and South Korea, spread to Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean and more areas.
To this end, the United States will deploy new LCSs in Singapore and reserve more supplies to expand the parking capacity of U.S. warships; enhance joint training to improve its ability to respond to humanitarian disasters.
The LCSs is the key to achieve its strategic transformation "from sea to land". The type of ship which is required a displacement of less than 3,000 tons, is mainly for offshore operations, to complete tasks the traditional major combat surface ships cannot, to take coasts control as the vanguard for
