The United States Second Fleet is a

numbered fleet The structure of the United States Navy consists of four main bodies: the Office of the Secretary of the Navy, the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, the operating forces (described below), and the Shore Establishment. Office of the Chief of ...

in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

responsible for operations in the East Coast and

North Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

. Established after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Second Fleet was deactivated in 2011, when the United States government believed that

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

's military threat had diminished, and reestablished in 2018 amid renewed tensions between NATO and Russia. Second Fleet's area of responsibility includes about of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

from the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

to the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

and from the shores of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

to the middle of the

. Second Fleet's

United States West Coast The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast and the Western Seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous U.S. states of Calif ...

counterpart was United States First Fleet from the immediate post-World War II years until 1973, and

United States Third Fleet The United States Third Fleet is one of the numbered fleets in the United States Navy. Third Fleet's area of responsibility includes approximately fifty million square miles of the eastern and northern Pacific Ocean areas including the Bering ...

from 1973. In 2011, Second Fleet oversaw about 126 ships, 4,500 aircraft, and 90,000 personnel homeported at U.S. Navy installations along the

United States East Coast The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard, is the region encompassing the coast, coastline where the Eastern United States meets the Atlantic Ocean; it has always pla ...

Mission

As of 2008, the Commander, Second Fleet (COMSECONDFLT), under the Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command (CUSFFC), was also designated as Commander,

Task Force 20 Task Force 20 is a temporary combat force designation that has been used several times and may still be used by separate parts of the United States armed forces. The longer-established iteration was a part of the United States Second Fleet in the ...

. CTF-20 planned for, and when directed, conducted battle force operations in the Atlantic command in support of designated unified or allied commanders. CTF-20 directed movements and exercised operational control of USFFC assigned units to carry out scheduled ocean transits and other special operations as directed, in order to maximize fleet operational readiness to respond to contingencies in the Atlantic command area of operations. In order to command and control its forces, CTF-20 maintained a Joint Maritime Operations Center at its Maritime Headquarters, which was officially said to offer a new approach to command and control for fleet commanders. Until 2005, COMSECONDFLT had a permanent assignment with

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic The Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic (SACLANT) was one of two supreme commanders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the other being the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). The SACLANT led Allied Command Atlantic was based ...

's (SACLANT)

chain of command A command hierarchy is a group of people who carry out orders based on others' authority within the group. Military chain of command In a military context, the chain of command is the line of authority and responsibility along which orders ...

, as the Commander Striking Fleet Atlantic (COMSTRIKFLTLANT). COMSTRIKFLTLANT commanded a multinational force whose primary mission was to deter aggression and to protect

's Atlantic interests. Striking Fleet Atlantic was tasked with ensuring the integrity of NATO's

sea lines of communication Sea lines of communication (abbreviated as SLOC) is a term describing the primary maritime routes between ports, used for trade, logistics and naval forces. It is generally used in reference to naval operations to ensure that SLOCs are open, or ...

. STRIKFLTLANT was deactivated in a ceremony to be held on on 24 June 2005, being replaced by the Combined Joint Operations from the Sea Center of Excellence located at the Second Fleet headquarters.

Training

During its existence, Second Fleet was responsible for training and certifying Atlantic Fleet units for forward deployment to other numbered fleets, primarily U.S. Fourth Fleet, U.S. Fifth Fleet, and

U.S. Sixth Fleet The Sixth Fleet is a numbered fleet of the United States Navy operating as part of United States Naval Forces Europe and Africa. The Sixth Fleet is headquartered at Naval Support Activity Naples, Italy. The officially stated mission of the Si ...

. Second Fleet's main training and certification venues were the Composite Unit Training Exercise (COMTUEX) and Joint Task Force Exercise (JTFEX), conducted off the eastern U.S. coast from Virginia to Florida. These exercises serve as a ready-for-deployment certification events for

Carrier Strike Group A carrier strike group (CSG) is a type of carrier battle group of the United States Navy. It is an operational formation composed of roughly 7,500 personnel, usually an aircraft carrier, at least one cruiser, a destroyer Squadron (naval), squad ...

Amphibious ready group An amphibious ready group (ARG) of the United States Navy consists of a naval element—a group of warships known as an Amphibious Task Force (ATF)—and a landing force (LF) of U.S. Marines (and occasionally U.S. Army soldiers), in total abo ...

s, as well as independently deploying units.

Joint Task Force 120

In times of crisis and during certain exercises, Second Fleet became the Commander, Joint Task Force 120. This joint task force consists of elements of the Atlantic Fleet, U.S. Army quick reaction airborne and air assault units, U.S. Air Force aircraft and support personnel, U.S. Marine Corps amphibious forces, and at times, designated units of the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

. When activated, Joint Task Force 120 was tasked to execute a variety of contingency missions.

Subordinate Task Forces

Commander Second Fleet oversaw several subordinate task forces, which were activated as needed. Additionally, Commander, Second Fleet was the immediate superior to a number of

s, Expeditionary Strike Group 2, Commander Strike Force Training Atlantic, as well as the Standing Navy Command Element (COMSTANDNAV CE), a deployable command element that has served multiple rotations as the headquarters of

Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa Combined may refer to: * Alpine combined (skiing), the combination of slalom and downhill skiing as a single event ** Super combined (skiing) * Nordic combined Nordic combined is a winter sport in which athletes compete in cross-country skiin ...

. In October 1996 COMSECONDFLT created Task Force 28, consisting of independent deployers operating in both the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific. Commander, Western Hemisphere Group was assigned as Commander Task Force 28 (CTF 28). This arrangement assigned COMWESTHEMGRU the operational control (OPCON) of these Second Fleet destroyers.

History

The U.S. Second Fleet traces its origin to the reorganization of the Navy following

in December 1945 and the formation of the United States Eighth Fleet under the command of Vice Admiral

Marc A. Mitscher Marc Andrew "Pete" Mitscher (January 26, 1887 – February 3, 1947) was a pioneer in naval aviation who became an admiral in the United States Navy, and served as commander of the Fast Carrier Task Force in the Pacific during World War II. E ...

. In January 1947, Eighth Fleet was renamed Second Task Fleet. Three years later, in February 1950, the command was redesignated U.S. Second Fleet. Second Fleet's area of responsibility included the Atlantic coast of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

and part of the west coast of

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

Cuban Quarantine

In October 1962, President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...

called on Second Fleet to establish quarantine during the

Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis () in Cuba, or the Caribbean Crisis (), was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of Nuclear weapons d ...

. For more than a month, Second Fleet units operated northeast of the island, intercepting and inspecting dozens of ships for contraband. The operational control of the quarantine force was assigned to the Commander of the Second Fleet, Vice Admiral Alfred G. Ward, who organized Task Force 136 for this purpose. Task Force 136 included the support carrier USS ''Essex''. Effective deployment constituted a mammoth task to be accomplished in minimum time. To prevent future difficulties, plans had to be developed, ship captains briefed, supply ships dispatched, and thousands of details checked. Other Navy and Marine forces faced similar tough schedules. Marines, if not already engaged in landing exercises, were loaded on amphibious ships and ordered to sea. At the

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (), officially known as Naval Station Guantanamo Bay or NSGB, (also called GTMO, pronounced Gitmo as jargon by the U.S. military) is a United States military base located on of land and water on the shore of Guant ...

, dependents were evacuated to the United States on 22 October, and Marine units were shipped by air and sea to reinforce the base. Task Force 135, including the carrier , was sent to the south of Cuba, ready to join in the defense of the Guantanamo Bay base if needed. The carrier and the supporting ships of Carrier Division Six stood by to provide additional support. Antisubmarine forces were redeployed to cover the quarantine operations. An intensive air surveillance of the Atlantic was initiated, keeping track of the 2,000 commercial ships usually in the area; regular and reserve Navy aircraft were joined in this search by SAC bombers. Major exercises the fleet participated in during the Cold War included Exercise Mariner, Operation Strikeback in 1957, the maritime component of

Exercise Reforger Exercise Campaign Reforger ("return of forces to Germany") was an annual military exercise and campaign conducted by NATO during the Cold War. The exercise was intended to ensure that NATO had the ability to quickly deploy forces to West German ...

, and Northern Wedding. From 9 to 12 February 1978, Task Group 21.6 ( and USS ''Spruance'') visited

Monrovia Monrovia () is the administrative capital city, capital and largest city of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast and as of the 2022 census had 1,761,032 residents, home to 33.5% of Liber ...

Liberia Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...

1980s and 1990s

In 1983, President

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

ordered the Second Fleet to the

to lead the invasion of

Grenada Grenada is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The southernmost of the Windward Islands, Grenada is directly south of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and about north of Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad and the So ...

during

Operation Urgent Fury The United States and a coalition of Caribbean countries invaded the small island nation of Grenada, north of Venezuela, at dawn on 25 October 1983. Codenamed Operation Urgent Fury by the U.S. military, it resulted in military occupation with ...

. Leading joint forces, Vice Admiral Joseph Metcalf, III, COMSECONDFLT, became Commander, Joint Task Force 120 (CJTF 120), and commanded units from the

Air Force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...

Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

, and the

Marine Corps Marines (or naval infantry) are military personnel generally trained to operate on both land and sea, with a particular focus on amphibious warfare. Historically, the main tasks undertaken by marines have included raiding ashore (often in supp ...

. The amphibious force for the operation was made up of

Amphibious Squadron 4 Amphibious means able to use either land or water. In particular it may refer to: Animals * Amphibian, a vertebrate animal of the class Amphibia (many of which live on land and breed in water) * Amphibious caterpillar * Amphibious fish, a fish ...

(the amphibious assault ship , the amphibious transport dock , the dock landing ship , and the tank landing ships and ) and the 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit, built around 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines. Vice Admiral Metcalf assigned to the amphibious force, designated Task Force 124, the mission of seizing the Pearls Airport and the port of Grenville, and of neutralizing any opposing forces in the area. Simultaneously, Army Rangers (Task Force 121)— together with elements of the 82d Airborne Division (Task Force 123)— would secure points at the southern end of the island, including the nearly completed jet airfield under construction near Point Salines. Task Group 20.5, a carrier battle group build around and Air Force elements would support the ground forces. Before the beginning of the

Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

in January 1991, Second Fleet trained more than half of the Navy ships deployed to Southwest Asia.

21st century

On 22 February 2005/24 June 2005, with the establishment of

Allied Command Transformation Allied Command Transformation (ACT; French language, French: ''Commandement allié Transformation'') is a military command (military formation), command of the NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), formed in 2003 after restructuring. ...

, and in the total absence of the Soviet threat that had prompted its creation, the Striking Fleet Atlantic nucleus was disbanded. It was replaced in 2006 by the Combined Joint Operations from the Sea Center of Excellence. On 1 July 2008, the Navy re-established the

United States Fourth Fleet The U.S. Fourth Fleet is a United States Navy numbered fleet. It is the Naval Component Command of U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM). The Fourth Fleet is headquartered at Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, Florida. It is responsible fo ...

, based at

Naval Station Mayport Naval Station Mayport is a major United States Navy base on San Pablo Island in Jacksonville, Florida. It contains a protected harbor that can accommodate aircraft carrier-size vessels, ship's intermediate maintenance activity (SIMA) and a m ...

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...

, which then assumed responsibility for U.S. Navy ships, aircraft and submarines operating in the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

and the waters of Central and South America. In the aftermath of the

2010 Haiti earthquake The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic Moment magnitude scale, magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake that struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest (departm ...

, Second Fleet dispatched 17 ships, 48 helicopters, 12 fixed-wing aircraft and over 10,000 sailors and Marines in support of Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Response. Second Fleet units conducted 336 air deliveries, delivered 32,400 US gallons (123,000 L; 27,000 imp gal) of water, 111,082 meals and 9,000 lb (4,100 kg) of medical supplies. Hospital ship , as well as survey vessels, ferries, elements of the

Maritime Prepositioning ship Strategic sealift ships are part of the United States Military Sealift Command's (MSC) prepositioning program. There are currently 17 ships in the program, strategically positioned around the world to support the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corp ...

and

underway replenishment Underway replenishment (UNREP) (United States Navy, U.S. Navy) or replenishment at sea (RAS) (North Atlantic Treaty Organization/Commonwealth of Nations) is a method of transferring fuel, munitions, and stores from one ship to another while unde ...

fleets, and a further three amphibious operations ships also participated. During the evacuation of

Hurricane Irene Hurricane Irene was a large and destructive tropical cyclone which affected much of the Caribbean and East Coast of the United States during late August 2011. The ninth tropical cyclone naming, named storm, first hurricane, and first major ...

in August 2011, the fleet evacuated to the safety of the open ocean.

Disestablishment

On 21 August 2010, it was reported that Secretary

Robert Gates Robert Michael Gates (born September 25, 1943) is an American intelligence analyst and university president who served as the 22nd United States secretary of defense from 2006 to 2011. He was appointed by President George W. Bush and retained b ...

was considering disestablishing Second Fleet. On 6 January 2011, it was reported via a DoD news article that the Navy would disestablish Second Fleet in order to "use those savings and more to fund additional ships". The fleet was officially dissolved in a ceremony at Norfolk on 30 September 2011. Second Fleet's responsibilities and its additional title of Commander,

, were transferred to the re-organized

United States Fleet Forces Command The United States Fleet Forces Command (USFFC) is a service component command of the United States Navy that provides naval forces to a wide variety of U.S. forces. The naval resources may be allocated to Combatant Commanders such as United Sta ...

, as was the post of CJOS COE.

Reestablishment

On 4 May 2018, Admiral Chris Grady announced the reestablishment of the Second Fleet. Pentagon spokesman Johnny Michael said, "NATO is refocusing on the Atlantic in recognition of the great power competition prompted by a resurgent Russia". It was reestablished on 24 August 2018, with Vice Admiral Andrew "Woody" Lewis in command. Second Fleet was scheduled to resume operations officially on 1 July 2018, initially with a staff of 15 personnel (11 officers and four enlisted personnel), although plans call for its work force to expand to 256 (85 officers, 164 enlisted personnel, and seven civilians). It will exercise operational and administrative authorities over assigned ships, aircraft, and landing forces on the United States East Coast and in the northern Atlantic Ocean, as well as plan and conduct maritime, joint, and combined operations and train, certify and provide maritime forces to respond to global contingencies. Commander, Second Fleet will report to

. Vice Admiral Andrew L. Lewis was confirmed on 18 June 2018 as Commander, U.S. 2nd Fleet. Second Fleet was reactivated in Norfolk on 1 July 2018 and received formal establishment on 24 August 2018. Commander Second Fleet will be dual-hatted as the Commander for Joint Force Command for the Atlantic that will report to the

Supreme Allied Commander Europe The Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) is the commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Allied Command Operations (ACO) and head of ACO's headquarters, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). The commander is ...

. This Joint Forces Command is formally known as

Joint Force Command Norfolk Joint Force Command - Norfolk (JFC-NF) is a joint operational level command part of the NATO Military Command Structure under Allied Command Operations. Its headquarters is located in Norfolk, Virginia, United States. It is the functional successo ...

. Rear Adm. Doug Perry, director of joint and fleet operations at Fleet Forces Command, was quoted in early November 2018 that the fleet was reformed because "the Navy needed a commander to direct sustained combat operations in the Atlantic". Perry said it sends the message that "we understand we are in a battle for the Atlantic, and we will contest it." The Navy declared 2nd Fleet fully operational on 31 December 2019. During Exercise Steadfast Defender '21, Canadian Rear Admiral Steve Waddell, vice commander, Second Fleet, served as commander of C2F’s forward-deployed Task Force 20. On May 26, 2021, the U.S. Navy announced that Rear Admiral (lower half) Brian L. Davies would be assigned additional duties as deputy commander, Second Fleet, Norfolk, Virginia. He was to retain all currently assigned duties as Commander,

Submarine Group 2 Submarine Group 2 (also known as SUBGRU 2) is a seagoing group of the United States Navy based at Naval Support Activity Hampton Roads, Norfolk, Virginia. History Between 1965 and 2014, Submarine Group 2 was responsible for the administrative ...

, Norfolk, Virginia.

References

External links

Official website of the Second Fleet
* – Office of Information – U.S. Navy (11 May 2010) {{Use dmy dates, date=August 2019 2 Military units and formations established in 1950 Military units and formations disestablished in 2011 Military units and formations established in 2018