The growing sophistication and range of Chinese missile technology further from its shores has made the defence of Guam a top priority for the US Navy in the Pacific as Beijing becomes increasingly aggressive in the waters around Taiwan and the South China Sea, top Pentagon officials told Congress on Wednesday.
The call for more funding, speed and capability comes as the People’s Republic of China invests in air-to-air missiles able to strike far beyond visual range as well as in conventionally armed intercontinental missiles and an increased number of nuclear warheads as part of the People’s Liberation Army’s burgeoning capabilities.
Guam’s defence system “is certainly the top priority”, Admiral John Aquilino, commander of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, testified before the House Armed Services Committee.
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“I’ve articulated the requirement ... which is a 360-degree, integrated air-and-missile defence capability for Guam that would protect our citizens and protect the forces that we need, and that includes ballistic, hypersonic and cruise-missile threats.”
The Pentagon is asking Congress for some US$400 million to help defend the US territory, which would likely play a key role in any invasion of Taiwan. Guam is located about 1,800 miles (3,000km) from mainland China’s Fujian province.
In addition, the US Army said it needed US$7.2 billion to upgrade Guam’s crumbling infrastructure and safeguard against global warming, while the US Air Force would like US$22 billion for similar purposes.
Aquilino cited the example of storms that have slammed into the island, including super typhoon Mawar in 2017, barely affecting the underground power-distribution system at Guam’s Anderson Air Force Base but hammering other parts of the system dependent on above-ground infrastructure.
“The ability to sustain Guam is essential,” he said.
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After Guam on the Pentagon’s wish list for the Indo-Pacific is the creation of a seamless “blind, see, kill” network aimed at taking on China, military officials told the House hearing on US military policies in the region ahead of funding for fiscal year 2025.
The ambitious plan would give US military and regional allies a single “pane-of-glass” view of the battlefield to everyone ranging from enlisted soldiers on desolate islands to allied warships and commanders overseeing a conflict from thousands of miles away.
“We need to track it and then we need to shoot it,” Aquilino testified on Wednesday. “I don’t care what tracks it, I don’t care what shoots it, we just got to hit it.”
“They all have to come together to be able to execute at speed and there’s not a lot of time for decisions when you’re talking about intercontinental ballistic or ballistic missiles,” he added.
Officials also stressed, however, that avoiding conflict through deterrence was always preferred. China in the past three years added more than 400 fighter aircraft, 20 major warships and more than doubled its inventory of ballistic and cruise missiles, they said.
Conflict in the region “is neither imminent nor inevitable” and the Pentagon “is doing more than ever to keep it that way with the help of US allies and partners”, said Ely Ratner, US assistant secretary of defence for Indo-Pacific security affairs.
“We’re building on historic momentum with our allies and partners towards a regional force posture that is more mobile, distributed, resilient and lethal,” he added.
But James Moylan, Guam’s delegate to the US House of Representatives, cited some of the frustration of the island’s residents as its geographical location has attracted heightened Pentagon attention.
The US military is the largest consumer of power on the island but is exempt from the periodic electricity brownouts and blackouts, said Moylan, who is not authorised to vote in Congress.
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Furthermore, some 40 per cent of shipments moving through the port are military cargo, yet the US military’s trucks are the only ones that do not have to comply with weight limits, leading to significant road damage.
“The military is the only organisation exempt in Guam,” the army veteran and former parole officer testified. “The people of Guam have come to a consensus that the federal government must contribute to the reconstruction of our infrastructure.”
Despite rising demands for Pentagon resources and manpower fuelled by the Ukraine war and the fight to counter Houthis’ harassment of shipping in the Middle East, the US would stay committed to the Indo-Pacific and countering Beijing, officials said.
“The administration has been moving to realign the budget towards the China challenge,” Ratner said.
“This year’s budget would invest US$2.3 billion more in Indo-Pacom than last year. That’s a nearly 20 per cent increase,” he added, referring to the US Indo-Pacific Command with its 380,000 American personnel.
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US officials cited the recently announced 7.2 per cent increase in China’s military budget as evidence of its “increasingly aggressive and bold and emboldened” behaviour destabilising the region.
The Chinese embassy in Washington countered that China remained committed to peace and stability in the South China Sea, calling Taiwan a purely internal affair.
“Some big powers outside the region” stir up trouble and create turmoil, added embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu. “We firmly oppose the US side’s slandering and smear towards China.”
Aquilino, who testified on Wednesday for his last time before retiring, described China as “a competitor with the United States today, tomorrow and in the future”.
“They’re not going away,” he said, adding: “All of it, the entire strategic approach by Indo-Pacom, is designed to prevent this conflict.”
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