Drills in East Asia this summer by the US military body charged with moving munitions and equipment would help it better coordinate and communicate with allies in response to a crisis, its commander said on Friday.
Alarmed by growing Chinese assertiveness, whether in the disputed South China Sea or around Taiwan, Washington and its friends in the region have been drilling together regularly.
US Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) is responsible not only for coordinating the pre-positioning of weapons and other equipment around the world by land, air and sea, but also for resupply in the event of conflict.
Photo: Bloomberg
On a visit to East Asia, USTRANSCOM Commander General Randall Reed told reporters it was essential to maintain and expand ties in the region to ensure a swift US response to disasters and to counter threats to peace and security.
“We’re going to have a series of exercises and will test the current logistics architecture and infrastructure which provides sustained freedom of maneuver,” he said on a teleconference, without giving further details of location or timing.
“We’re seeking to demonstrate our ability to rapidly mobilize, then deploy forces from within the United States to locations throughout the region here,” Reed added, describing the aim of one exercise, Mobility Guardian.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of National Defense
The tasks would permit testing of tactics, techniques and procedures with allies and partners and enhance connectivity, he said.
“It will help us deepen relationships and work together even more closely than we already are to bolster regional security,” he said.
On his trip, Reed has visited Japan and the Philippines, and is to go to South Korea, all treaty allies of the US.
The militaries of the Philippines and the US have sailed together in the South China Sea for a seventh time to boost interoperability between the two sides, Manila’s armed forces said on Thursday.
In related news, Taiwan accused China on Friday of raising tensions in the region with a “provocative” military patrol involving warplanes and warships near the country, an unusual public rebuke in what have seemingly become typically routine accounts of Chinese military activity.
The Ministry of National Defense said that from mid-afternoon on Friday, it had detected 21 Chinese military aircraft, including J-16 fighters, operating with warships to carry out “so-called joint combat readiness patrols” and “harass the airspace and seas around us.”
The ministry said “these acts are highly provocative, fail to pay proper attention to the maritime rights of other countries, bring anxiety and threat to the region, and blatantly undermine the ‘status quo’ in the region.”
Taiwan regularly reports such Chinese “combat patrols,” but does not generally attach such commentary to its statements.
Between 6am on Friday and 6am yesterday, the ministry detected 34 Chinese military aircraft, eight navy ships and one official ship operating around Taiwan, it said.
Among them, 25 military aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered Taiwan’s northern, southwestern and western air defense identification zones, it said.
The ministry said it had employed patrol aircraft, navy ships and coastal missile systems in response to the activities.
The median line once served as an unofficial border that neither side’s militaries crossed, but China’s air force now regularly sends aircraft over it.
Additional reporting by Fang Wei-li
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