‘Deterring conflict is our highest duty’ – By Jennifer Hlad (Defense One) / April 5, 2024
Adm. Koehler takes command of U.S. Pacific Fleet, as Adm. Paparo moves on to Indo-Pacific Command.
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii—On a windy pier overlooking the USS Arizona memorial and the USS Missouri, Adm. Stephen Koehler took the helm of U.S. Pacific Fleet on Thursday, replacing Adm. Samuel Paparo, who will take command of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command next month.
Pacific Fleet includes 145,000 troops, 200 ships, 1,200 aircraft, and two numbered fleets, all “positioned and responsible for the maritime domain that covers half the globe,” INDOPACOM commander Adm. John Aquilino, himself a former commander of the fleet, said Thursday. The job entails commanding naval forces in “the world’s most concerning theater, against our world’s most dangerous adversaries,” he said.
Paparo named those adversaries in his remarks: “a revisionist, revanchist, and expansionist [China], a ruthless Russia, and an intractable North Korea.” But, echoing Aquilino, he said the goal is to prevent war, not provoke it.
In the Indo-Pacific, Paparo said, “Deterring conflict is our highest duty.”
CONTINUE > https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2024/04/deterring-conflict-our-highest-duty/395512/
