MH370: Search for plane showcases US military presence, diplomacy in Asia

The expanding search for a missing Malaysian passenger plane has provided the Pentagon with an opportunity to showcase its Pacific presence in a region where its planned expansion has been stymied by shrinking budgets and pushback from China.

Having dedicated sophisticated Navy ships and aircraft to the search, the U.S. military is casting itself as a benign actor capable of working cooperatively with Beijing in a part of the world where it is attempting to strengthen alliances and put its rival on notice.

Sailors aboard the USS Kidd, a destroyer that had been conducting a security mission in the South China Sea, were excited to get pulled into the search last week.

"The crew bought into this mission right from the start," Cmdr. T.J. Zerr, the ship's executive officer, said in a phone interview Sunday night. "For all of us onboard, if one of our family members were on that plane, we would hope that anyone with the capabilities of our ships and aircraft would give anything they have to find it. That's the spirit we've gone into this mission with."

Sailors onboard the Kidd, which is currently surveying stretches of the Indian Ocean, have been working long hours searching for debris from the plane from the deck of the boat as well as the vantage point of its high-tech scanning devices and helicopters.

U.S. sailors have spotted suspected plane debris daily over the past week in the busy maritime corridor, which is heavily transited by fishermen and commercial vessels, Zerr said. A large yellow item that had seemed like a promising lead turned out to be a tarp, likely left behind by a fisherman, Zerr said. Buoys have also raised false alarms.

The search for Malaysian Airlines 370, which is being led by the Malaysian government, currently involves more than two dozen nations, including China, which had 154 citizens onboard. Zerr said Malaysian officials have done a decent job of directing the search teams, which have been at the mercy of an investigation riddled with conflicting clues and sinister theories.

"Without a well-positioned area for a search, it's a challenge," said Zerr.

But his team has been relentless, the commander noted. Sailors who normally are not required to perform deck observation duties have been volunteering for the assignments and the crew is logging fewer hours of sleep than usual.

"We'll get rest when we can," he said. "We're all committed to this."

Besides the USS Kidd, the Navy has contributed the USS Pinckney and a long-range maritime patrol aircraft.

The missing airliner is the second recent crisis that has given the U.S. military an opportunity to demonstrate its rescue and relief capabilities in the Pacific. The U.S. deployed aircraft and ships to assist victims of the November 2013 typhoon in the Philippines.

The Obama administration unveiled its strategy to "pivot" or rebalance its military and diplomatic efforts toward Asia in 2011, in an effort to foment stronger ties with several growing economies in the region. A bigger American role in Asia is also widely seen as a response to China's accelerated military growth and a deterrent to North Korea's nuclear arsenal.

U.S. officials have struggled to realize their vision for the Asia pivot due to budget constraints and a flurry of crises in the Middle East and North Africa that have often relegated the Pacific region to an afterthought. Kristina McFarland, a top Pentagon official who oversees acquisition, said earlier this month during a conference that as a result of tighter budgets, the "pivot is being looked at again, because, candidly, it can't happen."

The Pentagon later sought to downplay that assertion, saying that the strategy remains on course and will succeed even in an era of fiscal austerity.

Zerr, the second in command of the USS Kidd, said that military relationships the Navy has fostered in recent years have been crucial to close coordination during the search.

"When something like this happens, maritime nations band together and figure out how to make things happen," he said. -- The Washington Post