WASHINGTON – The US is scheduled to begin deploying in 2014 new P-8A Poseidon reconnaissance and anti-submarine aircraft to the Pacific and high-altitude surveillance drones to the Asia-Pacific region even as it seeks greater military access in Asian harbors in response to a rising China, The Washington Post said.
Under current plans the drones will be based in Guam but US officials are also searching for Asian partners willing to host the aircraft, it said.
The P-8As will replace the Cold War-era P-3C Orion surveillance planes.
The US Navy is preparing to base four Littoral Combat ships in Singapore and would like to rotate them periodically to Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries.
The Navy is also pursuing options to conduct joint airborne surveillance missions from Thailand, the Philippines and Australia, the newspaper said, quoting US officials.
In a front page report on Saturday, The Post said the Pentagon in recent weeks has intensified discussions with Thailand about creating a regional disaster-relief hub at U-Tapao, used by the US military as a major staging base for flights to Vietnam during the 1960s and 1970s.
US officials are reportedly also interested in more naval visits to Thai ports and joint surveillance flights to monitor trade routes and military movements.
The US is also seeking more regular access to Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam and greater accommodations in the Philippines, including at the Subic Bay naval base and the former Clark Air Base, once the largest US military installations in Asia, as well as key repair and supply hubs during the Vietnam war.
US officials have repeatedly said they have no wish or desire to reoccupy any of its Southeast Asian bases and are looking for permission to operate from them as guests
“We want to be out there partnered with nations and have a rotational presence that would allow us to build up common capabilities for common interests,” Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters after returning from a visit early this month to Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore.
China has alarmed many of its neighbors by making expansive territorial claims in the resource-rich South China Sea and the Sea of Japan, also known as East Sea, and the primary goal of the US is to ensure freedom of navigation and free trade, the Post said.-The Philippine Star (June 25, 2012)
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