United Press International,
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii: The agreement to re-locate 7,000 U.S. Marines from the Japanese island of Okinawa to the U.S. territory of Guam in the South Pacific is just one component of a far more ambitious transformation of U.S. military strategy in the Asia-Pacific theater. This includes a much closer coordination between U.S. and Japanese forces, while making them more mobile and flexible and less static.
Japan, which is planning to re-write its post-1945 constitution to modify its celebrated “pacifist” clauses, has agreed to expand its own defense forces and to train and operate them alongside U.S. troops. For the first time, Japan has agreed that a nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carrier can be based in Japan and to deploy powerful X-band radar systems, used to track long-range ballistic missiles.
The expansion of the U.S. base at Guam with new submarine and stealth bomber deployments alongside the 7,000 Marines fits into a broader U.S. strategy of “forward deterrence,” which is revolutionizing traditional naval doctrine and practice. Ships are now kept at sea for much longer periods simply by rotating crews. The destroyer USS Fletcher has been kept at sea for 24 continuous months by the use of replacement crews from the USS Kinkaid and then the USS Oldendorf and then the USS Elliot — saving the usual monthlong transit time from California bases.
The old Marine Expeditionary Units, which lacked defensive and offensive firepower, are being transformed into Expeditionary Strike Groups that include attack submarines and guided missile cruisers and destroyers to become far more powerful and self-reliant forces for amphibious attack.
The Navy has already deployed two of these new task forces in the Pacific, led by the amphibious landing ships Peleliu and Belleau Wood and another in the Mediterranean led by the amphibious landing ship Wasp. The Belleau Wood task force was commander by a Marine general, as part of the broader effort to overcome the traditional demarcation lines between the different services and to inculcate the practice of working jointly.
The commander of the U.S. Pacific fleet, for example, has been assigned the additional duties as commander, Joint Task Force 519. The Navy calls this “a fully deployable joint task force capable of planning and executing any contingency, whether it's evacuating civilians from danger zones or fighting a major conflict for the U.S. Pacific Command.” The deputy commander of the Joint Task Force is an Air Force three-star general (who is also the vice commander of U.S. Pacific Air Forces) and the chief of staff is an Army two-star general, who is also the deputy commander of U.S. Army Pacific.
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