US Army wants to play more robust role in Asia-Pacific

WASHINGTON – The US Army wants to play a more robust role in the Asia-Pacific to reassert its relevance in the region.

The move came at a time when the Obama administration deemed the region to be America’s next national security priority, the Washington Post reported.

Following its pullout from Vietnam, the US Army has played a diminished role in the Asia-Pacific, focusing instead on defending Western Europe from a Soviet invasion.

But it is now seeking to make a comeback in an area handled almost exclusively by the US Navy and Marines with Air Force support, the newspaper said.

Gen. Vincent Brooks, new Army commander in the Pacific, has drawn up a “Pacific Pathways” plan, which calls for land forces to effectively respond to small conflicts, isolated acts of aggression and natural disasters.

To overcome what he calls the “tyranny of distance,” Brooks is trying to make his forces more maritime and expeditionary.

He is seeking authorization to send key elements of a US-based infantry brigade to Asia and keep them there for months, rotating every few weeks to different nations to conduct training exercises.

“We can no longer afford to build combat units and put them on a shelf to be used only in the event of war,” the Post quoted Brooks as saying in an internal planning document.

The Marines, who regard themselves as America’s first and only maritime infantry force, are dismissive of the Army plan.

“They are trying to create a second Marine Corps in the Pacific,” an unidentified Marine general told the Post.

“To save their budget, they want to build a force the nation does not need,” he added.

The Pacific Pathways initiative will keep a rotating unit of about 700 soldiers, plus a contingent of helicopters, on a circuit in East Asia and Southeast Asia, the Post said.

Instead of flying troops back and forth from the US, the soldiers would rotate from one country to another, spending four to six weeks in each nation to respond to local emergencies more quickly, as the US Marines did when Typhoon Yolanda ravaged Tacloban.

Hours after receiving a Philippine government  request for US assistance to aid typhoon victims, a 70-member team from the Okinawa-based 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade arrived in Tacloban. Within three days, the Marine response increased to more than 2,000 troops. Using their own helicopters and cargo aircraft, the Marine brigade moved about 2,000 tons of relief goods to storm-racked areas before handing off to a larger US task force comprising troops from all four services – Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force.

The Army-Marine fight has profound implications for both services, said the Post.

If Brooks succeeds, Army leaders would gain a powerful argument to stave off additional rounds of personnel cuts  – Washington wants the Army to shrink from 540,000 to 490,000 by 2017 – while the Marines could face an existential crisis without their exclusive expeditionary status.

The US and the Philippines are currently working on a new security accord called Increased Rotational Presence that would allow more US forces to regularly rotate through the island country for joint military exercises, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.