SAN DIEGO– The head of the U.S. Pacific Fleet said U.S. and Japanese forces are improving their military and industrial base integration to modernize the relationship in line with the Indo-pacific Strategy released in 2022.
“Our operations together are increasingly partnered, we’re spending more and more time in combined formations every single day. So really, across all of the joint functions, we’re both stepping up our game,” Adm. Samuel Paparo said here on Feb. 14 at the WEST 2024 conference co-hosted by the U.S. Naval Institute and AFCEA.
The White House’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, released two years ago, noted American allies and partners in the region are the “greatest asymmetric strength” to help counter China. The document said the government would foster security ties with allies and partners, specifically to find new opportunities to link industrial bases, defense supply chains and co-produce key technology for collective military advantages (Defense Daily, Feb. 11, 2022).
Paparo argued the industrial integration is increasing, noting “a recent case has Japan who is now actually producing weapons for the United States on license. And so the integration of our defense industrial bases, the integration of our concepts of operations, the combinations and integrations of our headquarters, and they’re combining on a common mission reflects that modernizing the U.S.-Japan relationships in order to account for the international security environment that we’re in today.”
That first example is a reference to Japan deciding in December to sell the Patriot air defense system back to the U.S., which it first produced under license from American companies. This includes Patriot systems built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries under a incense from RTX [RTX] and Lockheed Martin [LMT].
He said Japan is improving cooperation based on a Japanese national defense strategy released in December 2022.
That strategy document focused on the country’s need for counter strike capabilities to counter China and North Korean missile threats that require more than missile defense capabilities. This means procuring domestic and allied-made weapons that can hit an enemy’s launchers, ordnance storage and various infrastructure used in attacks.
Paparo emphasized that through these efforts Japan is looking to quickly integrate a counter-strike capability via foreign military sales (FM) cases.
In the latest example, Japan’s Ministry of Defense signed a Letter of Offer and Acceptance for hundreds of the RTX [RTX] Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles (TLAM) under an FMS agreement (Defense Daily, Jan. 19).
The missiles are expected to be acquired between Japanese fiscal years 2025 to 2027. Their fiscal years start in April.
In late 2023, the State Department approved a $2.5 billion sale of 400 TLAMs bound for the country’s Aegis combat system destroyers (Defense Daily, Nov. 17, 2023).
On the operational and test side, he listed several events and firsts between the U.S. and Japan.
Paparo argued the recent Keen Edge 24 exercise was “the biggest command post exercise we’ve ever done with the Japanese self-defense force.”
He said this was the first time the Japanese Self-Defense Force used its Japanese Joint Operations Command, “their groundbreaking Joint Operations Command, which seeks to create the same joint effects that we’ve been after for 80 years.”
Keen Edge, which from Feb. 1 – 8, is a biennial command and control exercise and part of the annual U.S.-Japan series of exercises. It simulated and tested the countries’ ability to quickly respond to various crises and contingencies in the region.
Australia participated in Keen Edge for the first time as well and Paparo said they all operated “against the most complex scenario that demonstrated Japanese will and innovation that reflects the sea change” as an outgrowth from the new strategy document.
Relatedly, Paparo said the U.S. is also working to deepen major defense partnerships with India, strengthen deterrence with South Korea, advancing the U.S. – Australia alliance via the trilateral AUKUS agreement with the U.K. and separately bilateral measures and deliver on improvements for the Philippine – U.S. alliance.