The exercise is fueled by a rising china
characterized by the national defense
strategy as a long-term strategic
competitor of the united states. The NDS lays out a world where great
power competition rather than
counter-terrorism will drive the defense
department's decision-making and force
structure. the plan is to bring over a division
headquarters and several brigades over
the course of a 30-45-day period along
with their enablers brown said.
They will get the challenge of coming to
the pacific with the pacific assigned
forces already there he said and we
won't go to korea we will actually go to
a south china sea scenario where we will
be around the south china sea and
another scenario we can do that is the
east china sea. The exercise will consist of many things
the army has not practiced at such a
large scale. Brown said, forces will be in countries like the
philippines and thailand and they will
likely work with other countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.
The south china sea has been a hotbed of
contention for several years. China has laid claim to the area
building artificial islands in disputed
waters with military facilities on them
with the country claiming it has the
authority to restrict international
navigation. The defender pacific exercise
is expected to be complex and has a
joint and multinational focus, brown
emphasized.
Meanwhile the service is also expanding
its pacific pathways exercises conducted
throughout the calendar year for roughly
five years. The plan is to extend the time army
units are in countries which translates
to going to fewer places.
Brown said the army realized staying
longer would benefit both the host
nation in developing the local military
and u.s units so they can learn complex
skills in unique training environments. The army recently wrapped up pacific
pathways exercises in thailand and the
philippines spending more than three
months in thailand and four months in
the philippines as opposed to just
several weeks.
Brown said, Thailand wanted to work with the us army
because it plans to buy striker combat
vehicles. So a striker unit was deployed
there to help the local military get
acquainted with the system. The u.s army unit in turn learned how to
better employ the vehicle in the complex
terrain of thailand. Thailand should receive strikers in the
fall.
The army also traveled to the
philippines to help the government
develop brigade combat teams he said. The philippines are forming BCTS to
respond more quickly to a crisis after
experiencing a long terrible struggle
following the islamic state group's
takeover of the city of Marawi. ISIS dug into the city before the
filipino army could respond which led to
a five-month-long conflict in 2017.
According to Brown, every country in the pacific wants a
pathways except north korea i haven't
heard from them in china, Brown joked. the service is actually talking to india
about spending more time in the country
with a larger number of troops expanding
from roughly just a few hundred up to
2500 for a duration of up to six months
which gives us a presence in the region
longer as well without being permanently
there, brown said.
He noted that just because units are
staying in fewer countries for longer
doesn't mean they aren't gaining
experience in other places. In many cases smaller units break off
and deploy to countries to participate
in exercises or other training events.
