The Rising East
President’s proposed
defense budget would project
more U.S. power to AsiaBuried deep in President Bush's proposed defense budget for 2003 are three innovations intended to enhance the projection of American military power into Asia. There will be greater reliance on seapower, less on land bases, and more on high-tech sensors everywhere.
The intent will be to deter potential aggressors or, in the event of another operation like that in Afghanistan, bring U.S. military power to bear in short order because "the tyranny of distance" will have been overcome, at least in part.
The first innovation will be the conversion of four nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines to arsenals carrying 154 cruises missiles each. The submarines will be capable of doing what no other vehicle can, which is to patrol undetected off a coast for months, ready to put missiles on target in minutes.
The second will be to have three aircraft carriers, rather than one or two, on station in Asian waters most of the time, one in the Western Pacific, another in the South Sea and the third in the Indian Ocean. A carrier from the Atlantic fleet will join the Pacific fleet.
The third will be what a senior Pentagon official called an "enormous" extension of sensors intended to enable U.S. intelligence to know what is going on all over the Eurasian continent as it happens. The technology is secret, but officials say much of it will be in space.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, in briefing the press on the proposed budget, said the Quadrennial Defense Review, issued last Sept. 30, was the road map. It said: "Asia is gradually emerging as a region susceptible to large-scale military competition. Along a broad arc of instability that stretches from the Middle East to Northeast Asia, the region contains a volatile mix of rising and declining powers."
U.S. armed forces must have weapons, the review said, "capable of sustained operations at great distances with minimal theater-based support."
The four 18,500-ton submarines, each with 24 tubes, fit that mold. Their Trident missiles, no longer needed as the United States and Russia reduce nuclear weapons, will be replaced with smaller cruise missiles with 1,000-pound explosive warheads.
The Tomahawk cruise missiles, which are flying torpedoes with stubby wings and turbofan engines, are guided by high-tech guidance systems and fly so close to the ground they are almost impossible to detect by radar. Most important is their accuracy; they could be fired from 1,000 miles at sea and fly through the goal posts in Aloha Stadium.
The submarines are the most stealthy vessels in the world. Once on station, submariners say, "they bore holes in the ocean" at three knots at depths greater than 1,000 feet. They can loiter there for months, their limit being determined only by the stamina of the crew and their food supplies. To get the maximum service, each has two crews, one of which goes on patrol for six months, then returns to port to switch off.
Since October, aircraft carriers have provided a good part of the aerial punch the United States has delivered in Afghanistan. Bombers have provided their share but had to fly from the continental U.S. or from Diego Garcia, the British island in the Indian Ocean, a 6,600-mile roundtrip.
Like submarines, nuclear-powered carriers are limited only by the stamina of the crew and are generally on station for six months. Having three carriers in Asian waters would permit the U.S. to respond quickly to a threat with the promise of swift reinforcement by another carrier sailing at flank speed.
Among the critical lessons--not new but relearned--from the Sept. 11 terrorist assaults and the response in Afghanistan has been the fundamental need for good intelligence. Cruise missiles fired from submarines need fresh data to know where to go. So do attack pilots flying from aircraft carriers.
Pentagon officials suggest that new satellites bearing radar, electronic eavesdropping "black boxes," infrared apparatus, and long range lenses on cameras will be placed at high altitudes to provide wider and more persistent coverage. That will be transmitted to computers that will "fuse" the intelligence into a coherent whole that is dispatched to operational commanders.
With luck, all of this will dissuade China, North Korea, and perhaps others from underestimating American power and intent.
Richard Halloran is editorial director of the Star-Bulletin.
He can be reached by e-mail at rhalloran@starbulletin.com