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Tuesday, October 24, 2023

The Army Remembers its Core Capability

The Army is adding tanks to its Pacific forces. There is a lot of land and a lot of people out there. The Asia-Pacific region is not defined by the Pacific alone. 

The U.S. Army wants more tanks in its Pacific holdings. Why? Well praise be:

Should China, for instance, succeed in quickly annexing Taiwan, a massive combined Japanese, US and Korean land Army would likely be needed to extricate an occupying PLA force from the island.  While advanced sea, air and undersea power might succeed in winning a combat engagement, terrain will likely still need to be "held" and "occupied" and "secured" by land forces. 

He means "eject" rather than "extricate," I imagine, because we won't be rescuing the the PLA force. 

Further, the Army is worried the Abrams won't be good enough to fight China around its periphery. Although I'm not keen on trying to project and sustain an effort in Central Asia through hostile territory. Once again, the Gordian Knot of Iran adds another strand.

Huh. I'm shocked the concept is in play given the emphasis on helping the Navy. Large-scale combat operations are not only possible in INDOPACOM, they're necessary. Both on Taiwan and generally, around China's periphery

Even on a small, jungle-covered island.

As long as the Navy can deploy and sustain the Army and not put it into Bataan 2.0, of course.

Maybe somebody read my articles after all.

NOTE: The image was made from DALL-E. 

NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.

NOTE: I'm still adding updates on the Last Hamas War in this post.