Back in Europe, Navy commander faces new threats in Russia, Islamic State - News - Stripes: When he left the Navy’s 6th Fleet three years ago for a planning job at the Pentagon, then-Rear Adm. James Foggo III was fresh from U.S. and NATO air campaigns against the Libyan regime of Moammar Gadhafi.
“I thought we were really busy back then,” Foggo said in a recent interview. “Then I came back this time.”
Now with a third star on his lapel and full command of the fleet, the former submariner faces new threats that had yet to emerge in his last tour. Russia has grown more assertive, testing European boundaries in air, on water and undersea. The rise of the Islamic State group and the growth of Islamic militants in North Africa — the latter finding fertile ground in the vacuum of post-Gadhafi Libya — threaten European security and have contributed to a crush of migrants trying to enter the continent.
It’s an operational plateful for an officer who has spent the past two years in the Navy’s strategy chair, guiding concepts like Air-Sea Battle, which was designed to counter access challenges for military operations, and the new maritime strategy, intended to coordinate the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard strategies.
