US should help the Philippines replace the BRP Sierra Madre
Tom Rogan
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Last Friday, the Philippines successfully resupplied a Navy vessel it had deliberately beached on the Second Thomas Shoal. The BRP Sierra Madre hosts Philippine Marines who defend Manila’s claim over the Shoal, 122 miles of the West Philippines coast. While the Shoal is located well within the Philippines’s exclusive economic zone and 710 miles from China, Beijing claims the waters as its own.
Amusingly, considering Beijing’s penchant for aggressively harassing vessels that operate in these waters, the Chinese coast guard’s effort to obstruct this latest resupply run went rather badly. A Philippine military spokesman noted, “One of the blockading Chinese vessels was disabled after its propellers plowed through a coral reef in a shallow portion of the shoal. Another Chinese vessel attempted to assist the stuck ship, but it damaged its hull after hitting what could be an outcrop of rocks.”
NEW AMMUNITION TO SINK THE LITTORAL COMBAT SHIP
Yet even if this resupply run was successful, however, it’s unclear how long the Philippines can maintain the Sierra Madre. The beached ship has been falling apart for at least a decade. Patch-up repair works can only go so far. And China is banking on being able to seize the Second Thomas Shoal once the Marines are forced to abandon their maritime post.
The U.S. and its Philippine treaty ally can’t let that happen. China must not be allowed to secure its ludicrous imperial claims over the South China Sea. Were Beijing to succeed in doing so, it would gain unilateral dominion over lucrative energy and fisheries reserves. It would also control international trade routes worth trillions of dollars per year, using that control to extract political obedience from other nations.
Put simply, China’s success would do great damage to the principles of sovereignty and the right to free international transits through international waters. By extension, Beijing would broadcast to the region and the world that its new order of Beijing-led feudal mercantilism is successfully displacing the U.S.-led democratic rule of law-based international order. American allies in the Pacific and the European Union would likely move closer to China in response.
What happens in this far away Shoal, then, also matters for America. To its credit, the Biden administration has emphasized its support for the Philippines, a U.S. treaty defense ally. Under the leadership of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, the Philippines has moved to repair relations with the U.S. that were badly damaged under former president Rodrigo Duterte. Where Marcos now seeks to defend his national interests, Duterte made himself what the Chinese might call a “dog’s leg” for Xi Jinping.
So, what can be done to ensure that the Sierra Madre’s demise does not lead to China’s imperial victory?
The best solution seems to be replacing the Sierra Madre with another ship. Fortunately, there’s a solution available here. In a May article for Forbes, Craig Hooper points out that the U.S. Marine Corps has developed prototype vessels well suited to the task in question. As Hooper explains, the prototype vessels can be “set up to be a mini-jackup rig, equipped with four extendable legs capable of reaching into the seabed and hold the ship steady in surf. But the legs can also turn the ship into a platform or temporary pier in shallow waters — something the Filipino Navy desperately needs.” Stern Landing Vessels are prototypes that will eventually give way to a formal “Landing Ship Medium” class of similar vessels.
Recognizing Marcos’s support for the U.S. alliance, President Joe Biden should offer Marcos the use of the Marine Corps prototype vessels. The Philippines can then replace the Sierra Madre with a modern, far more effective alternative.
And the Chinese coast guard can keep crashing into reefs.