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Why did the US Navy revive its Second Fleet?
Summary
A look back at the 4 May 2018 decision to re-establish a fleet disbanded in 2011, and what it signalled about NATO–Russia tensions.
What did it mean when the United States Navy brought back a fleet it had dissolved seven years earlier? By 9 May 2018, five days after the announcement, the question was part of a wider discussion about the state of relations between NATO and Russia.
On 4 May 2018, the US Navy re-established the United States Second Fleet, which had been disbanded in 2011. The stated reason was recent heightened tensions between NATO and Russia. The move was thus presented as a response to a changed security environment rather than as a routine administrative change.
A label for the moment
The decision was reported in the context of what some scholars and journalists describe as a Second Cold War, also called Cold War II or a New Cold War. The terms have been used for 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 have used them as a comparison with the original Cold War, while others have discouraged applying them to ongoing tensions.
What it showed
The revival of the fleet, after a gap of about seven years, illustrated how the United States was adjusting its naval structure to the deterioration in its relationship with Russia. For Ukraine and its neighbours, it was one more signal that NATO–Russia tensions were being treated as a lasting factor in military planning.
