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"articleBody": "2USARPAC8thTheaterSustainment\n\nby Kris Osborn, Warrior\n\n(Washington DC) Tanks, infantry carriers, artillery and infantry can all steam\nacross hundreds of miles in the Pacific theater for expeditionary operations,\nrapid transport and high-speed emergency combat deployment, due to US Army\nPacific's accelerated push to expand its watercraft in the Pacific and intensify\ncollaborative, multi-domain efforts with its Navy partners.\n\nMany regularly discuss the \"tryanny of distance\" regarding the Pacific,\nsuggesting that the vast and seemingly limitless maritime expanse is essentially\nincompatible to mechanized land-power deployment in a rapid, expeditionary\nmanner. Due to advances in technology, enhanced multi-domain connectivity,\nAI-enabled joint-service networking, next generation platforms and new concepts\nof operation, the US Army is now vastly more capable of land-sea transitions,\ndeployments and maneuverability.\n\nThis improvement is supported greatly by the US Navy for several key reasons.\nThe US Navy's current and now arriving Textron-built Ship-to-Shore Connectors\n(SSC) are engineered to transport 70-ton tanks from ship to shore. In addition,\nthe Navy's Expeditionary Fast Transport (EPF) vessels, high -speed ocean\ntransport ships evolving from the previous Joint High Speed Vessel, are capable\nof transporting 600-tons of equipment.\n\nAs part of this joint equation, the US Army is fast-tracking a new Maneuver\nSupport Vessel Light vehicle (MSV-L) designed to enable high-speed,\ndisaggregated deployment of land combat power, including infantry, armored\nvehicles and weapons. US Army Pacific's Commanding General of the 8th Theater\nSustainment Command told Warrior that the service is intensifying work with the\nNavy to adapt new concepts of operation in support of a new generation of\ntechnologies and platforms.\n\nThe emerging MSV-L is now being tested in Hawaii with the US Army Pacific\nCommand's 8th-Theater Sustainment Group in preparation for deployment throughout\nthe Pacific.\n\nNew Maneuver Support Vessel Light --- MSV L\n\n\"Army watercraft allow you to do joint logistics over the shores what we do.\nIt's an exciting time. Currently today, the Army has its prototype Maneuver\nSupport Vessel Light MSV light. It's here with us in an Oahu and we're going to\nrun it through its paces,\" Gardner said. It's designed to move 1 70 ton tank,\ntwo Bradleys, two HIMARS, two Strykers or a company plus infantry and really\ntake them out that last tactical mile up to a 300 mile range,\" Gardner told\nWarrior in a special interview on Pacific watercraft.\n\nThis kind of ability enables the Army to offer substantial support to US Navy\nand Marine Corps forces potentially involved with island-hopping kinds of\nwarfare operations in littoral, coastal and multi-domain environments. \"This is\nanother way that you can deliver combat power to any beach on the planet at a\nhigh speed under our timing and tempo that we want. This is about using army\nwatercraft to do operational maneuver that puts us in a position to deliver\nprecision fires and precision force protection,\" Gardner told Warrior.\n\nFuture Army Pacific Watercraft Expansion\n\nHistorically, many are inclined to associated land-power deployment with\nlong-term staging operations and slow, gradual logistical build-up preparations\nto support land combat. For instance, land invasions in the Gulf-War and\nOperation Iraqi Freedom did require an extensive pre-deployment logistical\nbuild-up operation. While this may still be critical in some respects, in recent\nyears the Army has exponentially increased its ability to rapidly deploy and\nmobilize throughout multi-domain, maritime and littoral environments such as the\nPacific. Working closely with key allies such as Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan\nand Australia, US Army Pacific is massively revving up an increased ability to\ndeploy quickly and leverage new basing. The concept, as explained by Gardner, is\nto expand US Army operational support for the joint force beyond the first\nisland chain, in part by leveraging new bases in the Philippines and Japan.\n\n\"The plans are to expand the Army's presence really in that what we call the\nfirst island chain..... this case Japan, Korea, Philippines down towards\nSingapore and then also to the second island chain, which is a Guam, Papua New\nGuinea parts of Australia and then here in Hawaii. We have started to grow that\nforce. We just stood up a fifth composite watercraft company in Japan,\" Gardner\nsaid.\n\n\n\nKris Osborn [https://warriormaven.com/author/krisosborn] is the President of\nWarrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at\nthe Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant\nSecretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also\nworked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He\nhas appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military\nChannel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative\nLiterature from Columbia University.\n\n",
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