Army defends its role in Indo-Pacific struggle for influence

As U.S. strategists ponder the best way to carry out the new “great-power’ challenge posed by China, the Army insists it has a vital role to play in any future military operations in the crucial Indo-Pacific region, even with the oceans and vast distances that would seem to favor the Navy and Air Force.

Gen. James McConville, Army Chief of Staff, and Gen. Paul LaCamera, commander of U.S. Army, Pacific, pointed to initiatives such as their Multi-Domain Task Force, which can synchronize a variety of precision fires, such as artillery and air defense, along with precision effects, such as cyber and electronic warfare, and intelligence capabilities. On Tuesday, they defended the Army’s Indo-Pacific mission in a presentation hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“We are the largest ground force, so if there’s a fight on land, we’ll be the ones participating in that,” Gen. LaCamera said from his headquarters in Hawaii. “I think we play a critical role to the success of operations out here.”

The Army will play the major role in ensuring long-range precision guns in the Indo-Pacific theater that will “set the conditions” for the Air Force and the Navy, Gen. LaCamera said. 

“To work with our partners and allies is the top priority,” he said. 

A Navy four-star admiral has been the overall combatant commander in the Pacific since 1947 with the establishment of Pacific Command, its original title. Adm. Phillip S. Davidson has been commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command since 2018, and Adm. John Aquilino has already been nominated to replace him. Much of the strategic tension in the region is maritime, as China contests its neighbors’ claims to regional island chains and the vast South China Sea.

“What we’re providing in the Indo-Pacific is really what the combatant commander has asked for,” Gen. McConville said.

In addition to the Multi-Domain Task Forces, the Army established six regionally-aligned Security Force Assistance Brigades (SFAB) to train and advise foreign armies around the world. The 5th SFAB at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Seattle, Wash., is assigned to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

“We’re certainly involved in the air and missile defense capability,” Gen. McConville said. “We’re not a navy,  but we do have a watercraft capability that is in demand.”

While the U.S. Marine Corps is developing some of the same capabilities that the Army is touting, such as long-range precision fires, Gen. McConville and Gen. LaCamera said they are different services with different missions. Gen. David H. Berger, the Marine Corps Commandant, envisions his service evolving into more of a classic expeditionary force. 

“The systems we’re developing are more along the lines of a campaign rather than a quick expeditionary-type system,” Gen. McConville said. “So I don’t see us in competition with the Marine Corps.”

As a much larger organization, the Army can provide “the mass” to a conflict that the Marines may not possess, Gen. LaCamera said.

“If they’re there first, we can come behind them. That allows them to continue to move on,” he said. “We exercise regularly with them.”

Diplomacy will have a role to play as the Army negotiates with foreign countries for basing rights for units such as the Multi-Domain Task Forces, officials said. 

“What we’re doing is providing options which become dilemmas to our competitors,” Gen. McConville said. “The policy of where they’re actually based and how they’re based will be worked out through the policymakers and the diplomats.”