THE US military is drawing up a new air-sea battle plan in response to threats such as China’s persistent military build-up and Iran’s possession of advanced weapons, according to the Pentagon’s latest strategy review.
The US air force and navy are seeking more effective ways of ensuring continued access to the western Pacific and countering potential threats to US bases and personnel, according to the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), which was released yesterday along with the Pentagon’s proposed budget for 2011.
The joint air force-navy plan would combine the strengths of each service to conduct long-range strikes that could use a new generation of bombers, a new cruise missile and drones launched from aircraft carriers. The navy is also increasing funding to develop an unmanned underwater vehicle, according to the report.
The battle plan is among a range of new initiatives outlined in the review, which is conducted every four years to revise military strategy for the coming decade or more. The report places top priority on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and against terrorist threats elsewhere, while also preparing for future threats.
“This is truly a wartime QDR,” US defence secretary Robert Gates wrote in a cover letter for the report. “For the first time, it places the current conflicts at the top of our budgeting, policy and programme priorities.”
The review de-emphasises but does not abandon the Pentagon’s doctrine that calls for the military to be able to fight two major wars almost simultaneously. It acknowledges this mission but says planning should focus on other scenarios, such as irregular warfare including conflicts involving insurgents or drug traffickers and even humanitarian disasters.
“In the mid- to long-term, US military forces must plan and prepare to prevail in a broad range of operations that may occur in multiple theatres in overlapping timeframes,” the defence department says in the review. “This includes maintaining the ability to prevail against two capable nation-state aggressors.”
Alluding to China in his cover letter, Mr Gates cites longer-term threats such as “the military modernisation programmes of other countries”.
He also hints at dangers such as al-Qaeda in referring to “non-state groups developing more cunning and destructive means to attack the United States and our allies and partners”.
US officials have often called on their Chinese counterparts to provide explanations and assurances that their moves are purely defensive. The two countries resumed military talks last June, but China has halted visits over the defence department’s announcement in the last few days of an arms sale to Taiwan.
China is developing and deploying “large numbers” of advanced missiles, new attack submarines, long-range air defence systems and capabilities to wage electronic warfare and target computer systems, according to the report, which echoes an assessment of China’s military power issued almost a year ago.
China’s refusal to provide adequate assurances of its intentions raises “a number of legitimate questions regarding its long-term intentions”, the Pentagon says.
Citing “more complex” security conditions in the region, including North Korea and terrorist threats in southeast Asia, the review calls for “a more widely distributed” and flexible US presence in Asia that relies more on allies. Partners would include Australia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.
In the Middle East, Iran is fielding small attack boats in the Persian Gulf. This compounds the threat to naval operations from the acquisition by Iran and other nations of weapons that can target ships, according to the report. – ( Washington Post/Bloomberg)
