It is time to recommission the first fleet. Here is how the new administration can do so.
Ideas, both good and bad, often disappear with a change of administrations. One good idea that deserves to survive is the recommissioning of the 1
st Fleet proposed by Secretary of the Navy Kenneth Braithwaite. The Secretary’s vision includes an expeditionary orientation, with a focus on our allies and partners. Western Australia and South East Asia are mooted as potential locations, placing the fleet in a strategic location at the crossroads of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
As always with new proposals, skeptics abound. Finding the resources—from platforms to people and time—means reducing or terminating other things we are doing. We know the power of vested interests and the persistence of status quo. Another obstacle is perception. New administrations need credit for something new.