Webinar | Can the Navy Get There from Here? Logistics, Readiness & Access in the Coming Fight

October 10th is being proudly celebrated as Taiwan’s national holiday. If the Chinese Communist Party has its way, this year’s “Double Ten Day” will be the last such occasion.

Taiwan’s new president, William Lai, just courageously declared that “I will…uphold the commitment to resist annexation or encroachment upon our sovereignty.”

It’s widely expected that the Chinese Communists will respond with further, intensive military exercises underscoring Beijing’s ability to engage in just such encroachment, including by encircling and effectively isolating the island at will. Taiwan’s defense minister says these drills could become the real thing without notice.

In that event, any significant response by the United States will fall disproportionately on our Navy. The question is: In light of the growing capabilities of the People’s Liberation Army’s Navy and a series of acute challenges afflicting America’s naval forces, will the latter be up to the job of protecting our vital interests in the Western Pacific, not least of which is keeping Taiwan and its indispensable chip-manufacturing industry from being blockaded and/or seized by the CCP?

The next Committee on the Present Danger: China webinar today from 10:00-11:15 p.m. ET will examine such challenges, including:

- Inroads the Chinese Communists are making in negating or otherwise reducing our use of islands throughout the Indo-Pacific theater that have historically been key to our ability to project power;
- The sorry state of U.S. shipbuilding and its impact on the numbers, availability and readiness of naval combatants;
- The supply of underway replenishment vessels, other naval support ships and merchant marine assets essential to naval operations and a nation as dependent as we are on seaborne commerce;
- What can and must be done to restore naval deterrence and, if it fails, maximize the chances we will be able decisively to defeat our mortal enemy, the Chinese Communist Party at sea, on land, in the air and in cyber and outer space.

Moderator:

- Frank Gaffney, Vice Chairman, Committee on the Present Danger: China; Founder and former Executive Chairman, Center for Security Policy; Host, Securing America on Real America’s Voice Network
Panelists:

- Captain James Fanell, U.S. Navy (Ret.), Former Chief of Intelligence, U.S. Pacific Fleet; Co-author of “Embracing Communist China: America’s Greatest Strategic Failure”
• Topic: “A Net Assessment of the Sino-American Naval Competition and What We Must Do to Prevail”

- Cleo Paskal, Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Indo-Pacific at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies; consultant, Network for Strategic Analysis; board member, International Board of Advisors of the Global Counter-Terrorism Council; taught at Defense Colleges in the United Kingdom, India and Oman
• Topic: “The Competition for the Indo-Pacific’s Strategic Islands: Will Their Neglect by America Translate Past Battlefields into Future Ones?”

- Lieutenant Colonel Guermantes Lailari,U.S. Air Force (Ret.), Former USAF Foreign Area Officer; former Taiwan Fellow, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and a visiting researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research
• Topic: “Re-establishing Deterrence against the CCP and Buying Time for Us and Our Allies to Defeat It”

- Colonel Grant Newsham, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.), Former Military Attaché in Embassy Tokyo; former Foreign Service Officer; longtime business executive in the Western Pacific; Senior Fellow, Center for Security Policy; Author, “When China Attacks: A Warning to America”
• Topic: “Are America’s Allies Losing Confidence in Our Being There for Them When it Counts -- and Will They Be There for Us?”

- Captain Jay Bolton, U.S. Merchant Marine, (Ret.), Maritime Consultant, Tanker & Tall Ships' Master, Founder of the United States Maritime Foundation
• Topic: “The Indispensable Underpinning of U.S. Naval Power – The Parlous State of the Navy’s Support Vessels and the U.S. Merchant Marine Fleet and What We Must Do to Correct It”