Page:U.S. Department of Defense Freedom of Navigation Program Fact Sheet.pdf/2

U.S. Department of Defense Freedom of Navigation Program

The U.S. Department of Defense's FON Program is comprehensive in scope. The Program encompasses all of the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea and airspace available to all nations under international law. The Program is actively implemented against excessive maritime claims by coastal nations in every region of the world, based upon the Department's global interest in mobility and access. The Program is principle-based, in that it is administered with regard to the excessive nature of maritime claims, rather than the identity of the coastal nations asserting those claims. As a result, U.S. forces challenge excessive claims asserted not only by potential adversaries and competitors, but also by allies, partners, and other nations. The Program depends upon the employment of U.S. forces from each branch of the Military Services, including the U.S. Coast Guard. The Program includes both FON operations (i.e., operations that have the primary purpose of challenging excessive maritime claims) and other FON-related activities (i.e., operations that have some other primary purpose, but have a secondary effect of challenging excessive claims), in order to gain efficiencies in a fiscally-constrained environment.

The Department executes the DoD FON Program lawfully and responsibly. Activities conducted under the DoD FON Program are deliberately planned, legally reviewed, properly approved, and conducted with professionalism.

Each year, the Department compiles an annual FON Report. These reports are unclassified summaries of the FON operations and other FON-related activities conducted by U.S. forces, and they identify the specific coastal nations and excessive claims challenged in that year. The reports are published on the Department's website. They are intended to demonstrate transparently the U.S. non-acquiescence to excessive maritime claims, but without compromising the operational security of U.S. military forces.