The U.S. Marine Corps is also intensifying training in the waters off Japan for island conflicts in the Western Pacific, making the Marines a key force in dealing with the Chinese Communist military challenge. Pictured here is a Marine Corps CH-47 Chinook helicopter.
In recent years, the Chinese Communist Party has been expanding militarily around the world, and the U.S. Marine Corps is stepping up training for island conflicts in the Western Pacific off Japan, making the Marines a key force in dealing with the Chinese Communist Party’s military challenges.
The Chinese Communist regime’s vigorous military development has caused the Pentagon to update its strategy and training programs. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently said the Chinese Communist Party is the single most important security challenge facing the United States.
The Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 3 that Dakota Wood, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, D.C., said the situation has been fundamentally altered by China’s development of advanced weapons such as hypervelocity missiles, unmanned aircraft systems and robots.
“All of these things are very different from what the U.S. military has had to deal with for the last three decades,” he said.
The report said the Marines are preparing for a larger and more sophisticated enemy than extremists in the Middle East and Afghanistan, which has been the focus of operations in recent years, to counter Communist Chinese military forces, including military satellites, cyber warfare capabilities, artificial intelligence and more.
Marines Conduct Island Capture Drills Near Japan
In a recent series of exercises, dozens of Marines in two CH-47 Chinook helicopters landed in dense grass, followed by Japanese soldiers in two Fish Hawk tilt-rotor aircraft. The soldiers’ simulated mission was to retake an island port within range of enemy missile and artillery fire while avoiding detection by the enemy.
The exercise focused on small dispersed forces and a command center that was difficult to detect and attack by the enemy. The exercise’s simulated command center consisted of three armored vehicles that could be set up or moved in minutes with fewer traceable signals.
“We’re trying to get away from the tent and away from the computer because it (the tent and computer) is very stationary and has a strong electromagnetic signal,” said Lt. Col. Neil Berry, commander of 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment. The unit is headquartered in Camp Lejeune, N.C.
“First Island Chain Could Face Chinese Communist Challenge
The United States and its allies are concerned about potential challenges to the “first island chain,” a chain of territories that stretches from The Japanese archipelago to Taiwan and the Philippines to the South China Sea.
In 2020, the Communist Party’s armed coast guard sailed more than 1,100 times around the Japanese archipelago in the “first island chain,” the highest annual frequency since the conflict between China and Japan erupted in 2012.
Taiwan has increased its military budget in the wake of the Communist Party’s crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. Beijing, for its part, frequently conducts military exercises in the waters near Taiwan.
Taiwan’s National Defense Council said the CCP has continued to conduct long-range training in the airspace around Taiwan in recent years, such as six times in 2016 and 20 times in 2017. By 2020, communist aircraft disturbing Taiwan including sorties, intensity and frequency have increased significantly compared to the past, and closer to Taiwan, and frequently fly into Taiwan’s southwest air defense identification zone (ADIZ).
According to the National Defense Council, if we calculate the daily number of days of disturbance to Taiwan in 2020, from January 1 to November 30, the number of days has reached 91; if we further analyze the location of the communist aircraft disturbance to Taiwan, the main difference from previous years is that the largest number of days is entering the southwest ADIZ.
Attempting to operate in a decentralized force with a broad battlefield
To enable the Marine Corps to play a greater role in any maritime conflict, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger is seeking ways to integrate more closely with the Navy, as well as support Navy control of the sea.
During exercises with the Navy’s Seventh Fleet stationed in Japan in October and November 2020, Marines and Japanese soldiers simulated the capture of two islands near Okinawa, practicing the installation of mobile artillery rocket launchers that could be used to target enemy ships.
General Berger has requested more powerful weapons for the Marines, including Tomahawk cruise missiles against enemy ships.
Gen. Kyle Ellison, deputy commander of the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force in Okinawa, told “China Day” that the Marines are working with the Navy and the Japanese Marines to experiment with ways to fight in a decentralized force with a broad battlefield.
“It’s not easy, it’s complicated, and it takes practice,” he said. “We’re doing it every day.”
In December 2020, the U.S. and Japanese militaries conducted their annual computer simulation exercise, which included coordinating a decentralized Marine Corps command and control center during a conflict.
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