The US Army would improve its warfighting infrastructure in the Pacific with its forward-deployed “inside forces” ready to act immediately on day one of a conflict in the First Island Chain, which includes Taiwan, it said in a report released this month.
How the Army Fights, an operational warfare guidance report released on Oct. 7, states that the US Army would counterbalance “the pacing threat,” which it defines as the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), by improving its warfighting infrastructure across the region.
Because of China’s “rapid deployment capabilities,” the US Army is “developing the infrastructure to support forward-positioned multidomain capabilities and munitions, starting in the” First Island Chain, it said.
Photo: screen grab from US Army’s Facebook page
The US Army must “organize, train and equip against” the PLA “with the same institutional focus that the Cold War generations brought to the Soviet Army.”
“The Homeland is no longer a sanctuary, and peer adversaries can disrupt our ability to generate and project combat power before our formations close with the enemy,” US Army Acting Chief of Staff Christopher LaNeve, who previously commanded the US Eighth Army in South Korea, wrote in the foreword.
Military experts in Taiwan have interpreted the document as reflecting a Pentagon expectation of enemy strikes against railroads and harbors on US soil to delay US reinforcements in a conflict abroad.
To counter such possibilities, the US Army should reposition its “land power stocks and forward sites” to enable “inside forces” to overcome anti-access/area-denial capabilities, “deny a fait accompli, and win the first battle.”
The US Army plans to implement four operational elements: convergence, strike, close battle and endurance.
Under that protocol, the army would first combine electronic warfare, cyberwarfare and space-based capabilities to jam communications and disrupt air defenses, it said.
The forces would then use medium and long-range precision fire and uncrewed systems to degrade and dislocate the enemy and its supply lines before it can deploy ground forces, the report said.
The Russia-Ukraine war highlights the need to develop advanced capabilities in deception, concealment and counter-reconnaissance to disrupt an enemy’s “operating picture” of the battlefield, it said.
The report presents a hypothetical scenario in which the US Army Multi-Domain Task Force is deployed in the Luzon Strait within the First Island Chain, which includes Taiwan and stretches to the southern Kyushu in Japan.
That region is within the operational range of the PLA Navy.
The US Army is hardening logistics across the Second Island Chain — which includes Japanese islands, Guam and Palau — with fuel stockpiles, and engineering, medical and air defense assets to sustain operations in the region, the report said.
In Europe, the US Army would maintain a “relevant posture,” providing limited, but critical capabilities needed to support NATO-led deterrence, it said.
The army would “support a modernized, warfighting-focused NATO, where European allies assume primary responsibility for conventional ground defense,” it added.
A sea warning for Typhoon Champi could be issued as early as Wednesday night, possibly followed by a land warning on Thursday night or Friday, as the storm approaches Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. The typhoon is expected to have its greatest impact on Taiwan on Friday and Saturday, bringing heavy rain to central and northern Taiwan and to Yilan and Hualien counties in the east, CWA forecaster Liu Pei-teng (劉沛滕) said. As of 2pm yesterday, Champi was about 2,470km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving westnorthwest at 20kph. It had maximum sustained winds of 191kph and a
EAST OF GUAM: Tropical Storm Champi is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon, but its effect on Taiwan is uncertain due to the presence of a high-pressure system Tropical Storm Champi formed yesterday and has the potential to increase in strength, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Forecasters are closely monitoring a Pacific high-pressure system that would dictate whether the storm turns north or moves toward Taiwan next week, the CWA said. The most likely scenario is that it turns northward after passing the Ryukyu Islands, CWA forecaster Cheng Chieh-jen (鄭傑仁) said. As of 8pm yesterday, Champi was east of Guam moving west-northwest at 20kph, CWA data showed. It had maximum sustained winds near the center of 72kph and gusts of up to 101kph, the data showed. If the Pacific high-pressure system
ORIGINS: A Taiwanese doctor practicing in Japan said he no longer needed to cover the nationality label on his license with a sticker, as it used to confuse his patients Starting this month, Taiwanese professionals working in Japan can list “Taiwan” as their place of origin following Tokyo’s easing of rules on “nationality” in official licensing documents. The change was announced yesterday by the Japan-Taiwan Friendship Parliamentarians’ League in Tokyo. The license revision covers 322 professions, including doctors and nurses. Previously, Taiwanese had to list “China” as their nationality on professional certifications and licenses, but the new rules updated the “nationality” to “nationality and region” or “nationality, etc,” allowing Taiwanese to use the name “Taiwan.” The league held a meeting about the revision at the House of Representatives Members’ Office Building in Tokyo
US-made M1A2T Abrams tanks are to participate in a major military exercise for the second time, when the Lien Yung exercise (聯勇操演) begin next month, a military source said yesterday. The army’s 584th Armored Brigade, which operates the US-built tanks, has already transported them to the Joint Operations Training Base in Pingtung County for the drills from late next month to December, the source said. During the month-long joint military exercise in southern Taiwan, the tanks’ crew would test their combat coordination, said the source, who asked not to be named. The M1A2T Abrams tanks were included in a major Taiwanese military exercise
RSS