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Why did the US Navy revive its Second Fleet?
Summary
A look back at the re-establishment of a fleet disbanded in 2011, and the NATO-Russia tensions cited for it.
What did it mean when the United States Navy brought back a fleet it had shut down seven years earlier? The question surrounds an announcement reported on 4 May 2018, the day before the date covered here, 5 May 2018: the Navy re-established the United States Second Fleet, which had been disbanded in 2011.
The stated reason
The Navy cited recent heightened tensions between NATO and Russia. That is the only justification the reporting gave, and it frames the decision as a response to the security climate rather than a routine administrative change.
The wider label
The move was placed within what some scholars and journalists have called a Second Cold War, also termed Cold War II or a New Cold War. The terms describe heightened geopolitical tensions in the 21st century, usually between the United States and NATO on one side and Russia or China on the other. Some commentators use the comparison with the original Cold War, while others discourage the label for ongoing tensions.
What the decision signals
Reviving a fleet that had been disbanded in 2011 reverses an earlier decision, and the stated link to NATO-Russia relations shows how the Navy described the change. For readers in Ukraine and its neighbourhood, the announcement was one more sign of how the Alliance's relationship with Moscow was being discussed in military planning.
