Today, the Department of Defense (DoD) released its 2015 fiscal year Freedom of Navigation (FON) Report, which provides a summary of excessive maritime claims that were challenged by U.S. forces during the period of Oct. 1, 2014, through Sept. 30, 2015. The report summarizes challenges to excessive maritime claims asserted by 13 claimants throughout the world.
The DoD FON program is comprehensive in scope, encompassing all of the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea and airspace available to all nations under international law. The program is implemented actively against excessive maritime claims by claimants in every region of the world in order to support DoD’s global interest in mobility and access.
Each year, DoD compiles an unclassified FON Report providing summaries of the FON operations and other FON related activities conducted by U.S. forces. The summarized reports transparently demonstrate the U.S. non-acquiescence to excessive maritime claims, while still protecting the operational security of U.S. military forces.
The 2015 DoD FON Report is available at http://policy.defense.gov/OUSDPOffices/FON.aspx.