Sea Power Is Back In Vogue

The guided-missile destroyer USS Barry (DDG 52), (front) pulls into formation with the French Marine Nationale anti-submarine frigate Jean de Vienne (D 643) during Exercise Proud Manta 2013 (POMA 13) in this February 26, 2013 handout photo provided by the U.S. Navy. REUTERS/U.S. Navy/Handout via Reuters

Analysis: From Syria To South China Sea, Navies Cruise Back Into Vogue -- Reuters

(Reuters) - After a quarter century of Middle Eastern land wars and a sharp fall in big powers' naval spending after the Cold War, sea power is back in vogue in response to the rise of China and Western reluctance to deploy ground troops in conflicts like Syria.

The greater interest in navies is being felt from the corridors of Washington to the pirate hunting grounds off Africa and the shipyards of Asia.

"You're going to see a much greater emphasis on using sea-based forces to produce an effect," said Admiral Gary Roughead, who retired as Chief of Naval Operations, the professional head of the U.S. navy, in 2011.

"You're seeing it in the Mediterranean, with Syria, and you're seeing it in the Pacific and the Middle East," said Roughead, who is now a visiting fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

India last month launched its first locally built aircraft carrier and a dozen such ships are to be completed worldwide in the next decade, including two U.S. Gerald R. Ford-class giants, two British vessels, a refurbished Russian carrier for India and one or more of the first indigenous carriers to be built by China.

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My Comment: This is a trend that will probably escalate with time.