WE Branch Fanatic
The reason that there are more minesweepers now in the PG region is that the greatest likelihood of there being mines spread soon is ... in the PG region.
Simples, yes?
If you go back a few years, the Navy decided to finally stop home porting their minesweeper fleet in the Gulf of Mexico, and begin forward deploying more of them to where they might be of some use.
Likewise with their mine sweeping helicopter squadrons.
The mine sweepers are, politically, a very good deployment as they can be sold as a means to keep the high seas safe for commerce, and not seen as saber rattling.
As to stats: suggest one not copy and post stuff that doesn't have much behind it.
