The US is debating whether to position more naval assets in Europe as Russian warships and submarines operate at levels not seen in two decades,…

The US is debating whether to position more naval assets in Europe as Russian warships and submarines operate at levels not seen in two decades, according to the new head of the US navy

Admiral John Richardson, chief of naval operations, told the Financial Times the navy was reassessing its global posture in the face of the Russian activity, which stretches from the Black Sea and Mediterranean to the Pacific

“Their submarine force and their navy are as active as they have been in a long time — 20 years or so,” Adm Richardson said. “How are we going to posture our forces to make sure that we maintain the appropriate balance and are suitably engaged?”

Adm Richardson said the navy was evaluating whether to boost its presence in Europe and the Pacific. “That is the conversation we are having right now.”

While some of Russia’s activity stems from its involvement in Syria, its navy has been increasingly active elsewhere. Admiral Viktor Chirkov, head of the Russian navy, recently said Russian submarine patrols had risen 50 per cent from 2013

US officials are particularly alarmed by signs that Russian submarines are monitoring telecommunications cables on the Atlantic seabed, in activity Adm Richardson said was “very concerning”

“It is very hard to reconstitute that type of traffic in any other channel,” he said. “That would be a threat against the other global system, the information system . . . which is linked to prosperity, linked to security.”

The Russian activity comes as the US conducts new operations in the South China Sea to counter Chinese activity there — assertive actions at sea and the construction of artificial islands — that many nations believe threatens freedom of navigation in waters that carry 30 per cent of global trade

Adm Richardson said the Russian and Chinese activity underscored the need for nations to adhere to maritime rules to ensure that global commerce and prosperity were not threatened. While the South China Sea is a main trade route, another 20 per cent of trade travels through the Mediterranean

The “ambiguous motivations” of China and Russia raised fears about the health of a global system that ensures freedom of navigation and unfettered trade. “It again perturbs that global system,” he said. “The current model is equal access for all . . . has that been threatened?”

Adm Richardson said Russian President Vladimir Putin was trying to propel the country’s navy back on to the global stage to “make sure that they are being part of this whole conversation that’s emerging, that they’re seen as . . . serious players”, and that the phenomenon was “not a short-term thing”

Russia has maintained strong military investment since the end of the cold war and had recently demonstrated the quality of its navy by firing cruise missiles at targets in Syria from warships in the Caspian Sea. “That is a significant capability, a significant demonstration,” Adm Richardson said

The Russian naval activity comes as the US also faces the prospect of a rapidly expanding Chinese navy. China protested last week when a US warship sailed near one of its man-made islands in the South China Sea, a move aimed at showing that the US does not recognise Chinese territorial claims

Adm Richardson pointed out that Washington did not object when Chinese ships recently passed through US territorial waters around the Aleutian Islands following a joint naval exercise with Russia. The US also says China is jeopardising a global maritime system that helped its economy grow dramatically over the past three decades

“In many ways, they are behaving in full compliance and even advocating for this rule of law. Their contribution to the counter-piracy task force is one [example]. They were very clear about their freedom of navigation operation around the Aleutians,” said Adm Richardson. “It is just in these other areas, in the South China Sea, they seem to be taking a different position.”

The US was also paying attention to the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea — which Japan controls but China claims as the Diaoyu — where Chinese ships routinely sail inside what Japan says are its territorial waters

“It’s something . . . you’ve just got to continue to pay close attention to,” he said. “While it might not be as tense as it was a couple of years ago . . . neither do we want to become complacent and take our eye off that part of the world as well and I don’t think that we are.”