China Seeks ‘Hegemony’ in Asia: Adm. Harris, PACOM

China Seeks ‘Hegemony’ in Asia: Adm. Harris, PACOM
China Seeks ‘Hegemony’ in Asia: Adm. Harris, PACOM

WASHINGTON: The gloves came off during today’s Senate Armed Services committee hearing on China and North Korea with Pacific Command’s Adm. Harry Harris saying that China seeks “hegemony in East Asia” and is unequivocally militarizing the South China Sea. “In my opinion, China is clearly militarizing its position in the South China Sea. You’d have to believe…

Few Choices For US As China Militarizes South Pacific

Few Choices For US As China Militarizes South Pacific
Few Choices For US As China Militarizes South Pacific

WASHINGTON: Leading Republicans hastened today to denounce China’s deployment of anti-aircraft missiles to the South China Sea. But what can the US actually do about it? The arrival of the sophisticated HQ-9 missiles in the Paracel islands — claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan but occupied by China — is just the latest step in Beijing’s steady extension…

Transforming ‘Distributed Lethality’ Strategy into Action

Transforming ‘Distributed Lethality’ Strategy into Action
Transforming ‘Distributed Lethality’ Strategy into Action

The concept of “distributed lethality”—what Navy leadership has described as “holding more adversaries at risk across a wider geography”—was a recurring theme at the recent Surface Navy Association Symposium on surface warfare strategy. But the Navy needs to make clearer what it means and how will it be implemented. At the symposium, Vice Adm. Thomas Rowden said distributed…

Reshape US Army, Asian Alliances To Deter China: CSBA

Reshape US Army, Asian Alliances To Deter China: CSBA
Reshape US Army, Asian Alliances To Deter China: CSBA

WASHINGTON: The US Army must play a larger role in the Pacific to deter China, one of DC’s leading defense experts is telling Congress today. That larger role requires politically and fiscally difficult decisions to build new kinds of units and base them in new places, Andrew Krepinevich told me in advance of his Capitol…

Threats From Russia, China Drive 2017 DoD Budget

Threats From Russia, China Drive 2017 DoD Budget
Threats From Russia, China Drive 2017 DoD Budget

PENTAGON: After 25 years of war in the Middle East, the Pentagon’s 2017 budget is the first driven by Russia and China. “The program has been shifted to a more acute focus on the two high-end competitors, Russia and China,” a senior defense official told Sydney in an interview ahead of Secretary Ash Carter’s budget speech this…

McCain, Forbes Praise New Navy Challenge To China In Paracel Islands

McCain, Forbes Praise New Navy Challenge To China In Paracel Islands
McCain, Forbes Praise New Navy Challenge To China In Paracel Islands

[UPDATED with experts’ analysis; “innocent passage” confirmed] WASHINGTON: Just two days after the head of US Pacific Command, Adm. Harry Harris, pledged to push harder on Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea, the destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur sailed within the 12 nautical mile limit around Triton Island. Situated in the Paracels, which are claimed…

US Will Push Chinese Harder On Territorial Claims: PACOM

US Will Push Chinese Harder On Territorial Claims: PACOM
US Will Push Chinese Harder On Territorial Claims: PACOM

UPDATE: USS Wilbur sails through Paracel Islands Friday WASHINGTON: The United States will keep challenging Chinese claims in the South China Sea, the head of Pacific Command said this afternoon. Such Freedom of Navigation operations will grow in frequency, complexity, and scope, said Adm. Harry Harris. And Harris defended the first such FON operation” since 2012, last October’s cruise of the…

Many Ships = Few Wars: The Case For A Big Fleet

Many Ships = Few Wars: The Case For A Big Fleet
Many Ships = Few Wars: The Case For A Big Fleet

WASHINGTON: Think of international conflicts as earthquakes. Many little ones are better than one “Big One” — a global war. Social science suggests that the more often two rival powers interact, the more likely they are to resolve their differences through many small, manageable conflicts rather than one violent conflagration. That makes naval presence worldwide a very…

The Pentagon’s Four Horsemen: Milley Rates The Threats

The Pentagon’s Four Horsemen: Milley Rates The Threats
The Pentagon’s Four Horsemen: Milley Rates The Threats

CRYSTAL CITY: Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley offered insight this morning into how the leader of the largest service is racking and stacking the Four Horseman of Pentagon analysis. Miller didn’t explicitly rank them, other than repeating that Russia is Threat No. 1, but the order of danger was pretty clear: Russia, China, North Korea, and…

Congress Must Kill Sequester To Pay For Pacific Pivot: CSIS

Congress Must Kill Sequester To Pay For Pacific Pivot: CSIS
Congress Must Kill Sequester To Pay For Pacific Pivot: CSIS

WASHINGTON: If the United States is serious about “rebalancing” to Asia, it needs to invest some serious cash. Strategic small change won’t deter China or reassure our increasingly anxious allies, says a new report from the influential Center for Strategic & International Studies. And that means the CSIS study’s sponsor — Congress — must get its…

China: Army Leads On Mil-to-Mil Despite Sea, Air Tensions

China: Army Leads On Mil-to-Mil Despite Sea, Air Tensions
China: Army Leads On Mil-to-Mil Despite Sea, Air Tensions

WASHINGTON: US and Chinese ships and aircraft are increasingly facing off in the disputed waters of the Pacific. On land, however, the US Army and its PLA counterparts are actually building a stronger relationship. “While it’s very clear we have a competitive relationship also, especially in the air and maritime services, we have a cooperative…

US ‘Steadily Retreating’ In South China Sea Dispute

US ‘Steadily Retreating’ In South China Sea Dispute
US ‘Steadily Retreating’ In South China Sea Dispute

Those of us who cover the US military in detail, those in the military and those who spend lots of time around the military tend to be at least mildly obsessed with Star Trek and Star Wars. As his opening make clear, Dean Cheng is truly one of the tribe. But his topic, freedom of…

US Bombers, Tankers May Operate From Australia

US Bombers, Tankers May Operate From Australia
US Bombers, Tankers May Operate From Australia

WASHINGTON: While I hear there are still difficult details to be ironed out, the United States and Australia appear close to agreeing to regularly fly strategic bombers and airborne tankers from Darwin and Tindal air base in Australia. Gen. Lori Robinson, the commander of Pacific Air Forces, told reporters at a Defense Writers Group breakfast this morning that…

More Ships Can’t Save Overworked Navy; Basing Ships Abroad Can: CSBA

More Ships Can’t Save Overworked Navy; Basing Ships Abroad Can: CSBA
More Ships Can’t Save Overworked Navy; Basing Ships Abroad Can: CSBA

CAPITOL HILL: The Navy and Marines are deploying at a pace they can’t sustain, says a report released today.And no feasible defense budget can build a big enough force to solve the problem, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments says. Even the Navy’s famously optimistic 30-year shipbuilding plan — denounced by House seapower chairman Randy…