The Pentagon is emphasizing the importance of building up its bases in Guam and Australia to situate themselves better against China.
The move, first announced by a senior defense official to reporters on Monday, is an outcome of the global posture review, which the Department of Defense launched shortly after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was confirmed to the position last February.
PENTAGON MAKING SPACE ASSETS APPEAR ‘LESS JUICY’ FOLLOWING RUSSIA MISSILE TEST
“Direction from the GPR will strengthen the department’s focus on China by reducing posture requirements in other theaters to enable improved warfighting readiness and increase activities in the Indo-Pacific,” said the official who briefed reporters on the conclusions of the review.
The official explained that many of the details of the new plans and recommendations will remain classified.
The review directs the Pentagon to enhance “infrastructure in Guam and Australia” and to prioritize “military construction across the Pacific Islands,” the official said, adding that it should be “seeking greater regional access for military partnership activities.”
Mara Karlin, performing the duties of deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, said in a subsequent briefing that the review “directs additional cooperation with allies and partners across the region, to advance initiatives that contribute to regional stability and deter potential military aggression from China and threats from North Korea.”
The findings are not particularly surprising given Austin, and various other DOD officials, have declared China to be the United States’s “pacing challenge.”
Tensions between the Chinese and U.S. have ramped up in recent months over Taiwan and over China’s military development and progress.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The Chinese military has accelerated the pace of its nuclear expansion program to the point that it could “have up to 700 deliverable nuclear warheads” within roughly five years, while the report alleges that it “likely intends to have at least 1,000 warheads by 2030, exceeding the pace and size the DoD projected in 2020,” according to the DOD’s Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China report, released at the beginning of November.
Similarly, former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John Hyten, who retired shortly before Thanksgiving, called the pace of China’s military development “stunning.”
