WASHINGTON –
Increased risk to American forces in the Pacific due to shrinking
defense budgets, regional challenges and partnerships and cyber
capability were among the topics that Navy Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III
and Army Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti discussed yesterday before a Senate
panel.
Locklear, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, and Scaparrotti, commander
of U.S. Forces Korea, United Nations Command and Combined Forces
Command, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the
posture of U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific region.
Over the past year, Locklear told the panel, “we have done our very
best to remain ready to respond to crisis and contingency. Although we
have assumed greater risk, we have maintained focus on key aspects of
the rebalance to the Asia-Pacific.”
These include strengthening Pacom’s alliances and partnerships,
improving its posture and presence, and developing concepts and
capabilities required by the evolving security environment, the admiral
said.
“We have done this against a backdrop of continued physical and
resource uncertainty and the resultant diminishing readiness and
availability of our joint force,” Locklear added.
Other issues challenging Pacom’s security environment include the
potential for large humanitarian assistance-disaster relief events, an
increasingly unpredictable North Korea, the escalation of complex
territorial disputes, and growing challenges to freedom of action in
sea, air, space and cyberspace, the admiral said.
He also cited as priorities for Pacom growing regional transnational
threats and significant challenges associated with China's emergence as a
global economic power and a regional military power.
“During the past year, we have been witness to all of these
challenges,” he told the panel, “and our forces have been very busy
securing the peace and defending U.S. interests throughout over half the
globe.”
On the topic of China and in response to questions from the panel,
Locklear discussed China’s military capabilities and its
military-to-military relationship with the United States.
“We’ve known for some time that [China’s] People’s Liberation Army has
been pursuing [anti-access/area-denial, or A2AD] technologies and
capabilities that would allow them to potentially control access in the
areas around their borders, particularly in the sea space,” the admiral
said.
As a result, Locklear said, “we have for many years built our security
environment around aircraft carriers and forward bases with our allies.
We rely heavily on cyber and on space capabilities because we operate a
long distance from home and we rely on a long line of logistics support
necessary to being that far forward and to maintaining a peaceful
security environment.”
The admiral said the A2AD capabilities being pursued by the PLA go
after, directly or indirectly, “what they perceive as potential U.S.
vulnerabilities, whether they ever intend to use them against us or
against an ally. The concern also is that these technologies will
proliferate and further complicate the global security environment.”
Locklear agreed with a panel member who said that China's efforts are
underway to change the balance of power in at least the Western Pacific.
China’s maritime strategy is pretty clear, the admiral said.
“They don't hide it from anybody, and they have certainly tailored
their defense spending heavily in the maritime domain,” he said, adding
that he believes the Chinese announcement of a 12.2 percent increase in
defense spending is probably less than they are actually spending.
Still, Locklear added, “the Chinese military and the growth of the
military won't be a global competitor with U.S. security for a number of
decades, depending on how fast they spend and what they invest in. The
biggest concern is regionally, where they have the ability to influence
the outcome of events around many of our partners or allies [through]
the defense capabilities they're pursuing.”
In terms of cyber, the admiral said there are many bad actors in the
cyber world, but that “we've known for some time that there has been
state-sponsored activity [in China] to try to … get into defense
contractors’ [networks] and then to work that backwards to either
develop an advantage or to better understand any vulnerabilities we may
have.”
The United States watches this very carefully, he said, and is increasingly aware of such activities on a global scale.
“Because of the steps we're taking to build cyber forces that are
capable, to build on what I believe is our advantage in cyberspace,” the
admiral said, “I believe we have a considerable advantage compared to
the rest of the main actors in the world, and that our advantage is only
going to increase as we put these capabilities in place.”
In the Asia-Pacific, Locklear said, the United States guaranteed
security there for many years and that stability helped the region’s
economic rise including China’s.
“So they are very much interested in our alliances, the status of those
alliances, the status of forces that we have there and the capabilities
of those forces, he said, adding, “In the long run, a relationship
between the U.S. and China, even a mil-to-mil relationship, is in the
best interests of everyone.”
In his remarks to the panel, Scaparrotti focused on North Korea,
expressing confidence that Combined and Joint Forces of the United
States and South Korea are capable and ready to deter and if necessary
respond to North Korean threats and actions.
“Four years ago,” he said, “North Korea fired a torpedo sinking the
South Korean ship Cheonan, killing 46 sailors. That terrible day is a
constant reminder that standing at freedom's frontier with our Korean
ally, we cannot allow ourselves to become complacent against an
unpredictable totalitarian regime.”
The regime of Kim Jong Un is dangerous and has the capability to attack
South Korea with little or no warning, Scaparrotti added.
North Korea’s military is the world’s fourth-largest, with more than 70
percent of its ground forces deployed along the Demilitarized Zone. Its
long-range artillery can strike targets in the Seoul metropolitan area,
where more than 23 million South Koreans and almost 50,000 Americans
live, the general said.
“In violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions, North
Korea continues to develop nuclear arms and long-range missiles,” he
said, “and it is aggressively investing in cyber-warfare capabilities.
North Korea brings risk to the world's fastest-growing economic region,
which is … home to our largest trading partners.”
Against the North Korean threat, Scaparrotti said, the United States is
committed to the security of South Korea and to U.S. national
interests. The U.S. military presence is a key component of the nation's
rebalance to the Asia-Pacific region.
“In the spirit of this commitment, we are working closely with the
South Korean military to develop its capabilities and combined [command,
control, communications, computers and intelligence] systems, an
alliance countermissile defense strategy, and the procurement of
precision-guided munitions, ballistic missile defense systems and
[intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] platforms,” Scaparrotti
told the panel.
The general said readiness is his overarching priority, and that to
make sure U.S. Forces Korea is focused on the right things at the right
time, he’s developed five priorities.
“First,” he said, “sustain and strengthen the alliance. Second,
maintain the armistice to deter and defeat aggression and be ready to
fight tonight. Third, transform the alliance. Fourth, sustain force and
family readiness. And fifth, enhance the [United Nations Command,
Combined Forces Command and U.S. Forces Korea] team.”
At the core of mission success is the close relationship the United States shares with its South Korean partner, he said.
“We benefit from an important history forged on many battlefields,
shared sacrifices and democratic principles. Over the past 60 years,
we've built one of the longest-standing alliances in modern history,”
Scaparrotti added.
“We will continue to ensure a strong and effective deterrence posture,”
the general said, “so that Pyongyang never misjudges our role, our
commitment or our capability to respond as an alliance.”