Latest news with #MDTF
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US Army tailoring Pacific commands for Multi-Domain force
The U.S. Army in the Pacific has begun working through how it will build two Multi-Domain Commands in the theater to oversee and direct the service's Multi-Domain Task Force units as it continues to expand and refine its presence as part of an overall effort to deter China's increasing aggression in the region, Gen. Ronald Clark, U.S. Army Pacific commander, told Defense News. The new Multi-Domain Commands are coming as part of the Army's new transformation initiative. According to an Army execution order issued in May, the service plans to build four. Indicative of the Army's desire to continue to prioritize building up capability in the Pacific theater, two will be focused there: Multi-Domain Command — Pacific and Multi-Domain Command — Japan. Two others, Multi-Domain Command — Europe and Multi-Domain Command — Army, are taking shape, as well. The Army is working on sizing the force for the commands 'in a way that's different,' Clark said in a Friday interview. With the rise of the MDTF capability in the Pacific, 'the authorities associated with that, in some cases are to the [Indo-Pacific Command] commander and above,' Clark said. 'So, to be able to ensure that we have the authorities associated with the right level of command and the staffs associated with the tasks required to plan, synchronize, train those assets, a two-star level headquarters is where that will reside.' The service's first MDTF was experimental, but since then the Army has operationalized that first unit and will ultimately build four more. The Army established the initial unit at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state around 2018. U.S. INDOPACOM theater exercises, with MDTF participation, helped inform the Army's Multi-Domain Operations warfighting concept, which has now evolved into doctrine. The Army stood up the second MDTF in Europe in 2021 and the third in Hawaii in 2022. A fourth MDTF will also be devoted to the Pacific, and a fifth, based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, will be able to deploy rapidly as needed. All five MDTFs will be established by 2028. The units are designed to operate across all domains — land, air, sea, space and cyberspace — are equipped with the Army's growing capabilities, such as the Precision Strike Missile, the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon and the Mid-Range Capability Missile. MDTFs will also have units devoted to the critical sourcing of intelligence across domains and spectrums and information sharing with the joint force to enable targeting. The MDTF units' presence in the Pacific in recent years have been credited with effective deterrence. For instance, the MRC resident with the 1st MDTF has drawn the ire of China since being deployed to the Philippines as part of the last two cycles of U.S. Army exercises with the country. Recent assessments through exercises and warfighter experimentation have shown the need to operationalize such commands and create a higher level of command authority for the MDTFs, according to Clark. The new commands are 'additive to what we currently have in the Indo Pacific and in U.S. Army Pacific, so with that comes additional tasks and funding,' Clark said. The Army's fiscal 2026 budget request reflects some additional funding in order to execute the establishment of the commands. The 1st and 3rd MDTF will fall under the Multi-Domain Command — Pacific, and the 4th MDTF will be associated with Multi-Domain Command — Japan. According to the Army's execution order for the transformation initiative, the Pacific command combines the 7th Infantry Division headquarters with the 1st and 3rd MDTFs. The command in Japan combines U.S. Army Japan's headquarters with the 4th MDTF. 'The Multi-Domain Task Force is a theater-level capability,' Clark said. 'It has inherent capabilities ... cyber, space, electronic warfare, long-range precisions first, it's ability to be able to conduct integrated air and missile defense in its own defense and in a point defense kind of way, those capabilities ... go beyond an area of joint area of operations.' MDTFs are commanded by colonels,'which is great,' Clark said, but adding they will now plug into a two-star command structure that can report to U.S. Army Pacific, for example. 'We need to up-gun the level of staff and command,' he said.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Army task forces ‘centerpiece' for deterring China: INDOPACOM boss
The head of the largest U.S. combatant command praised the fires capabilities that the Army's multidomain task forces bring to a potential conflict in the Indo-Pacific region. The service's task forces are the 'centerpiece' of how the joint force denies Chinese military access to key areas, said Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Tuesday at the Association of the U.S. Army's annual Land Forces Pacific conference in Honolulu, Hawaii. Paparo said such units, combined with the Army's firepower, enable land forces to contribute fires that counter China's military aggression in the region. Multidomain task forces are growing and shaping exercises overseas 'We're facing a profoundly consequential moment here in the Indo-Pacific and, accordingly, the world,' Paparo said. In a call with media before the event, Army Gen. Ronald Clark, head of U.S. Army Pacific, further framed the use of the task forces. 'What we have developed over time through the joint force is the capability to flip the script if you will that land forces can provide access to air and maritime capabilities on the land,' Clark said. Units such as the multidomain task force, or MDTF, of which the Army has two operational in the region and is building a third, are 'not easily targetable,' dispersed, easy to camouflage and dominate in time and space for targeting, Clark said. Paparo pointed specifically to the Precision Strike Missile, or PrSM, and its recent use in the Valiant Shield military exercise in Palau. PrSM's long-range strike capability, coupled with midrange strike capabilities from maritime assets such as the Tomahawk cruise missile and long-range hypersonic weapons at the strategic layer, creates a deterrence posture across the region. PrSM is being used to give even tactical units a beyond 500-kilometer strike, putting them in the strategic fires ranges, Army Times previously reported. Lockheed Martin is currently fielding the Increment 1 version of the PrSM, which has a range of at least 500 kilometers, according to the company. Increment 2 is a land-based, anti-ship seeker. Increment 3 adds lethal payload options, while Increment 4 seeks to push existing ranges beyond 1,000 kilometers. Meanwhile, the Hawaii-based 3rd MDTF is slated to receive a Typhon midrange missile launcher battery, Defense News reported in March. The Lockheed Martin-built system, consisting of a vertical launcher that uses the Navy's Raytheon-built Standard Missile-6 and Tomahawk missiles, can strike targets between 500 to 2,000 kilometers. The system has a battery operations center, four launchers, prime movers and modified trailers. The 3rd MDTF plans to add hundreds of soldiers to the formation over the next 18 months as it seeks to fill the 2,000-soldier formation. The ultimate configuration will include a headquarters and four battalions, including a long-range precision fires battalion and a sustainment battalion, Defense News previously reported.
Japan Times
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
U.S. Army looks to deploy agile new unit to Japan for exercises
The U.S. Army plans to deploy one of its new agile, multidomain units to Japan for exercises as it looks to work more closely with allies and partners to help deter and potentially confront adversaries in the Indo-Pacific, the army's Pacific commander said Wednesday. Speaking to reporters, U.S. Army Gen. Ronald Clark didn't provide specifics but noted that the focus of the service's new Multi-Domain Task Forces (MDTFs), 'and not just in their employment or deployment to Japan, is to combine ... capabilities to challenge China's anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) network.' A2/AD refers to Beijing's strategy of working to keep the U.S. and allied forces at bay in the event of a conflict over Taiwan. Concerned about the threat posed by Russia and China, the U.S. Army has been setting up MDTFs that can operate across all warfighting domains — land, air, sea, space and cyberspace. Equipped with the army's latest weapons, such as new long-range precision missile systems and advanced cybercapabilities, the Pentagon has already established three such formations in strategically significant locations worldwide and is planning two more over the next two to three years. 'We're right now in the process of making our formations more mobile, more lethal, more survivable and more resilient by increasing the lethality of our soldiers and giving them capabilities that they can use right now ... to be able to deter our adversaries,' Clark said. Two of those formations — the 1st and 3rd MDTFs — already operate in the Indo-Pacific and a third is in the works. 'Our opportunity to deploy those capabilities, really across the region, is something that we look forward to continuing to do,' Clark said after elements of the 1st MDTF, which is headquartered in the state of Washington, deployed the Typhon Mid-Range Capability (MRC) missile system to the northern Philippines for exercises in April last year. The system, which is capable of firing Tomahawk cruise missiles, with a range of 1,600 kilometers as well as SM-6 missiles — has remained in the country since. Philippine officials have suggested that it will stay in the country indefinitely, with Manila also announcing plans to acquire its own midrange system. 'Our ability ... to synchronize in time and space long-range precision fires, (a) cybercapability, space capability and information operations in order to penetrate and neutralize an A2/AD threat is important,' Clark said. A U.S. Army High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) assigned to the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force, is readied as part of the Balikatan 25 military exercises, in Palawan, the Philippines, on April 28. | U.S. ARMY Crucial to success, he added, is the ability to deploy those assets in a way that's dispersed, easily camouflaged and allows U.S. forces to be one the move, so that they cannot be targeted at any one time and place. 'Both the will and capability to deploy those assets is the key to deterrence, and we plan to do that whenever possible,' he said. 'This is all about our ability to prevent war by building necessary capacity and interoperability with our partners and allies in the region.' Clark suggested the topic could be discussed at the U.S. Army's upcoming Land Forces Pacific Symposium in Hawaii from May 13 to 15. The event, he said, will bring together representatives from 32 Indo-Pacific nations, including at least 11 army chiefs as well as the commanders of the two MDTFs currently operating in the Indo-Pacific. His remarks came after the four-star general, who took up his post in November, wrote late last month that the U.S. Army would not only deploy an MDTF to Japan but also 'employ long-range non-kinetic space and cyber effects across the theater' as the Pentagon increasingly views allies as 'force multipliers.' 'The whole goal of this is that we want stronger and more resilient partnerships and a network of partnerships, not less going forward,' Clark said Wednesday. 'Less does not deter.' As part of a strategic move to reinforce its military posture in the Indo-Pacific, Washington has been considering the idea of having an MDTF 'operate out of Japan' as a part of exercises, along with a powerful missile system, since 2024. Last September, then-U.S. Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said the Pentagon had already made its interest clear with the Self-Defense Forces, adding that any deployment would 'go at the pace of the Japanese government.' Clark, who oversees 106,000 personnel, told The Wall Street Journal earlier this week that the goal is for the U.S. Army to operate the new multidomain agile units on front-line territories, including in the first island chain — which runs from Japan through Taiwan, the Philippines and on to Borneo, enclosing China's coastal seas — to deter Chinese aggression. In a conflict, the idea would be for these forces to disperse, hit Chinese targets from land, collect valuable battlespace information and create openings for U.S. air and naval forces to maneuver, Clark said in the interview, adding that the role of the new missile systems being deployed to the region is to help the units do their job. Besides the Typhon, the U.S deployed the HIMARS multiple rocket launcher system to this year's Balikatan exercises in the Philippines along with the Navy/Marine Corps Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS), a ground-based anti-ship missile system. 'If it gives them (China) pause, if it causes them to think twice, if it causes them to delay any thoughts they would have about some sort of aggressive action towards Taiwan that would result somehow in reunification, let them have it,' Clark was quoted as saying about giving these systems to allies and partners.
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US Army readies second Typhon battery for Pacific deployment
The U.S. Army's 3rd Multidomain Task Force unit is standing up its long-range fires battalion over the next year, including readying its Typhon battery for deployment in the Pacific theater — marking the Army's second such missile system to enter the region, according to the unit's commander. The Army has two certified and fielded Typhon batteries, also known as Midrange Capability missiles, stationed out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, Col. Michael Rose, the 3rd MDTF commander, told reporters in a media roundtable Friday. The 3rd Multidomain Task Force, or MDTF, headquartered in Hawaii, will officially receive its Typhon battery at JBLM this year, according to Rose. The Lockheed Martin-built system, consisting of a vertical launch system that uses the Navy's Raytheon-built Standard Missile-6 and Tomahawk missiles, can strike targets in the 500- to 2,000-kilometer range. The complete system has a battery operations center, four launchers, prime movers and modified trailers. Defense News first reported the Army's plan to pursue the midrange missile in September 2020. The Army fielded the capability in less than three years. The Army deployed its first Typhon missile launcher to the Philippines in 2024 as part of the joint exercise Salaknib, where the 1st MDTF transported it 8,000 miles via a C-17 Globemaster cargo aircraft. The system has remained on the island of Luzon. US, Philippines expand exercise to territorial edges amid tension with China 'We're constantly looking for opportunities to exercise capability like that forward in theater,' Rose said. 'We learn enormous lessons by bringing capability into the theater.' Rose said the Army anticipates the Typhon supporting Operation Pathways, a series of year-round exercises designed to strengthen cooperation with regional allies and deter China. China criticized the first deployment of the Typhon in 2024, warning it could destabilize the region. Officials have yet to fire the missile system in the Philippines. When asked if his unit might conduct a live-fire exercise with the Typhon system, Rose said, 'We're always looking for opportunities to do live-fire with the system. It gives us enormous benefit to be able to do that, so we're looking for the opportunity to do that at any time in our campaigning activities to include the next 12 months.' Meanwhile, the Army is working to field another three batteries to the remaining multidomain task force units between fiscal 2026 and 2028, the service's Program Executive Office Missiles & Space, told Defense News. The Army plans to next field a battery to the 2nd MDTF based in Europe in fiscal 2026. The service is also working to build out its MDTF structure by fiscal 2028. Established at JBLM around 2018, the Army's first MDTF was experimental, but the service has since made it operational and will ultimately build four more. Multidomain task force units have since participated in U.S. Indo-Pacific Command exercises that have helped inform the Army's Multidomain Operations warfighting concept, which has now evolved into doctrine. The Army's fourth MDTF, stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado, will focus on the Pacific theater and is anticipated to be established in full by fiscal 2027. The 5th MDTF will be stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where it will concentrate on regions as determined. It will be operational by fiscal 2028.
