SPRATLYS: SLOCs and various choke points, importance to US and to other nations

By: Anne de Bretagne

Philippine Sabah Claim Forum

Nov 15, 2011

This diagram illustrates the various choke points (SLOC) in the region thar are vital to the US (and of course, to China). They are the shortest routs to the Indian Ocean. If, for whatever reason, those lanes are blocked, US military vessels and commercial ships will lose precious time, at huge cost, if they have to turn around Australia to reach the Indian Ocean; this becomes even more critical in time of crisis when the US Navy must deploy, for example, to the Gulf. The US will not, can not allow any nation to block these sea lanes.

I was asked a question by a student in international diplomacy in another thread: "What interest shall the US protect, then, in the region?"

My brief answer: 

There are 3 lanes/chokepoints in the region: (1) Malacca Strait, (2) Sunda, (3) Lombok Strait... These are the lanesthat provide the shortest routes from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean for large ships, US Navy and US merchant marine ships (tankers).

The US needs unimpeded sea lines of communication for their' own traffic (military and for commercial purposes -- to ferry tankers for example).

For example, the US needs these sea lanes to be able to access the Gulf from their Pacific base as quickly as possible especially in time of crisis... A detour, eg., around Australia if say, Malacca Strait, the shortest route to the Gulf, is closed for some reason, its non-access would hugely impede US naval deployment by one hell of a long tim,e by many days if not weeks, and that's not good enough.

So what interest does US have in the region? To ensure the free flow of sea traffic, for trade and military purposes. It is in US interest to "protect" the region from, say, a blockade by an ambitious nation in the region

Again, the SLOC in that region is as vital to the US as to the Chinese and to every nation in the region.

Besides, big tankers, huge naval vessels, aircraft carriers cannot go through a different route (within the time required) because the waters are shallow, hence, the US has no choice but to "borrow" those SLOCs.

The importance of the Spratly is that it is a choke point as well. Any one nation that controls the Spratly could very well block passage to the Malacca and the Sunda Straits, hence it is in the interest of the US that no "armed sea conflict" arises over the Spratly and will prevent such conflict arising by any means possible.