By Jim Morris, Warrior Vice President, News
It’s one more sign of how the US views the threat posed by China – and how Washington believes that Japan will play a crucial role in countering it.
After several days of meetings in Tokyo between the defense secretary, the secretary of state and their Japanese counterpart, the Pentagon announced that it will “reconstitute” US Forces Japan into a joint air, ground and naval headquarters that will report to the head of the US Indo-Pacific Command based in Hawaii. The new command will be led by a three-star officer and will be a counterpart to the new Japan Joint Operations Command, which is to come into existence next year.
“We are reinforcing our combined ability to deter and respond to coercive behavior in the Indo-Pacific and beyond,” said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III. “We’re reinforcing the rules-based international order that keeps us all safe. And the agreements that we’ve advanced today will ensure that the US-Japan alliance remains a cornerstone of security and stability in the Indo-Pacific.”
Currently, coordination between the US military and Japan’s Self Defense Forces is handled through Hawaii. That will change under the new setup, which Austin said would allow the two forces to work together more closely than before, and would advance “collective deterrence.”
The US has 54,000 military personnel in Japan, more than half of which are stationed on Okinawa. Headquarters for US Forces Japan is Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo.
A joint statement from the two countries highlighted what they called the “increasingly deteriorating regional security environment,” including China’s expansion of its nuclear arsenal, North Korea’s development of ballistic missile and nuclear programs and Russia’s “undermining of arms control and the global nonproliferation regime.”
The ministers also objected to China’s recent activities in the South China Sea, where the Chinese coast guard has clashed with ships from the Philippines over a reef where the Philippines has a tiny garrison.
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Meanwhile, the ministers welcomed what they called mutually beneficial co-production opportunities to build more Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air missiles (AMRAAM) and also missiles for Patriot PAC-3 air defense system.
All this is the latest in a series of Pentagon moved aimed at establishing closer ties with allies in the Pacific.
In February. Washington and Manila agreed to expand the American military presence in the Philippines. That will include more US access to bases there, and more exercises involving troops from both countries.
The southern part of the Philippines is just 400 miles from Taiwan. So, the US could build up and air and ground force that would be relatively nearby if China were to attack.
Last year, the US agreed to periodically deploy nuclear-armed submarines to South Korea, a move aimed at countering the threat posed by North Korea. Kim Jong Un’s regime is developing tactical nuclear weapons, and there’s concern it is making progress on a long-range weapon that could hit the US.
Japan, meanwhile, is buying 50 of the US-made AGM-158B Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile Extended Range (JASSM-ER). The cruise missiles will turn the Japanese F-15Js from a pure fighter jet into a fighter-bomber with deep-strike capability.
That represents a sea change for Japan, whose post-war constitution allows using force for defense purposes only, hence the name Self Defense Forces. But in 2022, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida okayed proposals that would give the military the right to attack other countries in what he called a “counterstrike capability.”
