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The United States' 'Freedom of Navigation' program challenges territorial claims on the world's oceans and airspace that are considered excessive by the United States, using diplomatic protests and/or by interference. The United States position is an insistence that all nations must obey the international law of the sea as stated by the UN Law of the Sea Convention - a treaty which the United States has not ratified^[1]. Some coastal states make claims that the United States see as inconsistent with international law, which, if unchallenged, would limit navigational freedoms of the vessels and aircraft of the U.S. and other countries.
On several occasions, U.S. armed forces have conducted operations in areas claimed by other countries, such as operations in the Gulf of Sidra in the 1980s. Throughout the years U.S. forces have been performing "Freedom of Navigation" operations in the Straits of Gibraltar, Strait of Hormuz, Malacca, the Indonesian Archipelago, the Black Sea, and occasionally the Canadian Arctic.
One of the notable operations conducted as part of Freedom of Navigation program^[2] was performed by USS ''Yorktown'', during which, on February 12, 1988 she was "nudged" by Soviet frigate ''Bezzavetny'' in an attempt to divert the vessel out of Soviet-clamed territorial waters; some observers have called the event "the last incident of the Cold War."

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References

1. [1]
2. Campbell, "USS Caron’s Black Sea Scrape Furthered International Law, National
Interest", ''THE VIRGINIAS-PILOT AND THE LEDGER STAR", June 12, 1988, at C3, col. 1.

External links

★ Freedom of Navigation (FON) Operations

★ FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION