Framework for Augmenting Current Fleet with Commercially Available Assets for Logistics Support in Contested Environment

Abstract

The United States government came out publicly with an explicit statement that the so-called “nine-dash line,” which the People’s Republic of China (PRC) asserts delineates their claims in the South China Sea, is contrary to the international law. China claims that the “nine-dash line” encircles as much as 90 per cent of the ¬contested waters. The line runs as far as 2,000 km from the Chinese mainland to within a few hundred kilometers of the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam. PRC maintains it owns any land or features ¬contained within the line, which confers vaguely defined “historical maritime rights” (Liu 2016). It encircles the area where China demands economic rights. Another interpretation is the line marks the islands and reefs China wants to control rather than the waters inside its boundaries. ¬PRC has long favored a strategy of ambiguity. It does not openly go against international law but prefers to leave space for its more ambitious claims.