RYO NAKAMURA
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army is considering deploying a task force in Asia that would integrate missile, electronic and cyber capabilities to deter Chinese aggression in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, Charles Flynn, commander of the U.S. Army Pacific, said in an interview with Nikkei.
The army unit, known as the “multidomain task force,” consists of several thousand people stationed at bases in the U.S. state of Washington and in Germany. It is organized into four groups, with capabilities in fire power, air defense, logistics and information warfare.
The force highlights the U.S. military’s shift in recent years from fighting terrorism in the Middle East to competing with China.
The task force gathers intelligence during peacetime, preparing for contingencies by working to understand adversaries’ behavior patterns and weaknesses. If a battle ensues, electronic and cyberattacks would aim to disable communication networks and disrupt the enemy’s command and control systems. Using information obtained in advance, the force could attack enemy ships and facilities with missiles, with a variety of attacks carried out simultaneously.
The third force is expected to be stationed in Hawaii initially, but it is thought that its ultimate deployment will be in Asia. It is expected to be launched after 2023.
The U.S. is considering deployment of the force to Asia because of its proximity to China. The army is developing several types of missiles but their range is believed to be several thousand kilometers at most, meaning they will not be able to reach China or waters near it from Hawaii. Basing them close to China would enhance Washington’s readiness.
The U.S. military plans to deploy land-based missiles along the so-called first island chain that connects Okinawa to Taiwan and the Philippines. The Pentagon’s thinking, in part, is to assign a multidomain task force to this project. Ground troops are agile and can easily evade Chinese missile attacks. As a vanguard force, it would be responsible for first destroying China’s air defense system and command and control, creating an opening for U.S. warships and fighter jets to approach the area around China.
One issue is whether Asian countries would agree to host such U.S. forces, which would likely become targets for Chinese forces in the event of war. China is likely to warn nearby countries that they could become a target to dissuade them from accepting a deployment.
The U.S. military had overwhelming superiority in land, sea and air capabilities against terrorist organizations in the Middle East, but its forces are similarly matched with those of China. In the western Pacific, the combination of cyber, electronic and space capabilities should expedite processes ranging from intelligence-gathering to operations, helping to prevent China from achieving its objectives quickly.
It is believed that Russia was the first to practice multidomain operations. In the fighting that has continued in Ukraine since 2014, electronic warfare capabilities were reportedly used to cut off Ukrainian forces’ GPS systems, while cyber forces were believed to paralyze the country’s power infrastructure. Many believe that they were able to demonstrate their capabilities in these new domains in time for the ground invasion, and that they were able to gain the upper hand in the fighting.
Source：Nikkie Asia