bases and partner nation places around the world to deteraggression, response to crises, and to win ournation's wars. if you refer to the chart i have provided in front of you, you can see on any given day, we have about 50,000 sailors and 145 ships under way with about 100 of those ships deployed overseas. these ships and sailors allow us to influence events abroad because they insure access to what i refer to as the maritime cross roads. these are areas where shipping lanes and our security interests intersect, and they're indicated in orange on the chartlet. we can replain forward in these areas because of the facilities and support from nearby allies and partners. in the middle east, we have 30 ships and more than 22,000 sailors. they are combatting piracy, supporting operations in afghanistan, assuring our allies and maintaining a presence in the region to deter or counter destabilizing activity. in the asia pacific, we have about 50 ships supported by our base on guam, and our facilities or places in singapore, the republic of korea and japan. they will be joined next spring by th