The Army needs a much bigger role in INDOPACOM. But this is the vision?
Of course, this would not be about deploying tank armies or large formations of infantry. It would be about inserting mobile, hard-to-target fires units with weapons capable of threatening valued Chinese assets. Development of long range, precision fires is the top modernization priority of the Army, and it plans to field hypersonic weapon against which Chinese forces have no defense as soon as 2023. There is even talk of a cannon that can accurately hit targets a thousand miles away.
Why are so many people eager to make the Army a coastal artillery naval auxiliary?
Coastal artillery? Really?
If I may be so bold, long-range precision Army weapons planted on islands off the coast of Asia is not a much bigger role in INDOPACOM.
This is a much bigger role (as I outlined in Military Review):
In any future emerging confrontation in the Asia Pacific, the U.S. Army eventually will have to take a pivotal role in order for the United States to prevail. Therefore, the U.S. Army must consider and prepare for a role in the Asia-Pacific region that goes beyond merely fighting anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) threats to the Navy to one that better accounts for the value of large-scale land operations in support of a joint campaign.
Yeah, don't give the Navy our Army.
UPDATE: And let me repeat my whining--because I can--that the theater is called INDOPACOM rather than my suggestion PAINCOM.
