Compass Points - Paparo Praise?
Pacific forces need genuine combat power.
Compass Points - Paparo Praise?
Pacific forces need genuine combat power.
May 16, 2025
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In a recent speech reported by Military Times, Admiral Samuel J. Paparo, Commander, US Indo-Pacific Command, said that island missile units in the Pacific were the "centerpiece" for deterring China in the Pacific. The Admiral's praise for the island missile units must have been gratifying for the senior leaders in the Marine Corps who have been working for nearly six years to emplace missile units on Pacific islands off the coast of China. It is always good to know that your hard work is valued.
Unfortunately for the Marine Corps, Admiral Paparo was not praising the Marine island missile units off the coast of China, because there are no operational Marine island missile units off the coast of China. Admiral Paparo was praising the US Army missile units in the Pacific.
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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.
“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.
-- Military Times
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Does Admiral Paparo have praise for the Marine effort to put missiles on islands off the coast of China? Not much. Even in his recent posture statement before Congress, Paparo hardly mentions the Marine Corps' missile efforts. He does make clear that the Marine Corps' ROGUE/NMESIS island missile launchers will not be given a key operational mission in the Pacific, but instead will only "pursue additional training and exercises."
Marine missile units did not participate in the recent exercise Valiant Shield. Weeks later in the Philippine exercise, Balikatan 2025, while the Marine Corps did get the Air Force to transport in one of the launchers, the Marines still did not launch any missiles.
Who are the Marines deterring?
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Deterrence remains our highest duty. It must be backed by real, winning combat power.
-- Adm Paparo, Posture Statement April 2025
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Adm Paparo emphasizes that US forces in the Pacific must have genuine combat power that will deter.
What hostile nation is being deterred by the Marine Corps' misguided and unsuccessful effort to place relatively slow and limited range missiles on Pacific islands near China? Neither China nor any other nation hostile to the US are being deterred by the Marine Corps' non-existent missile units.
The US needs to deter hostile forces not only in the Pacific but around the world.
From China, to the Middle East, to the US southern boarder, to Panama, to the Ukraine conflict, to the fight between India and Pakistan, and much, much more, the US President is intervening around the globe. If his AOR encompasses the entire globe and if he is going to be intervening worldwide, he will need a mobile, global military force to provide US presence and US options around the world. More than ever, the Commander-in-Chief needs Marines -- not Marines parked on defense on Pacific islands -- but Marines embarked on Navy amphibious ships patrolling the oceans of the world ready to arrive off any troubled shore to deter, assist, and fight.
It is time for the Marine Corps to wake up from the misguided missile detour. Time to return the focus of the Marine Corps to a restored and enhanced worldwide 9-1-1 crisis response force.
The missile misadventure has damaged Marine Corps combat capabilities. Today after so many years, the Marine Corps has nearly zero operational island missile capability, and, sadly, has a greatly reduced worldwide, combined arms, crisis response capability. There is no national security need for he Marine Corps to continue to focus on island missile units. Other US military services have planes, ships, subs, and land based units that already have a strong and growing missile capability to strike China's fleet.
Other US military services, however, do not have the history and institutional experience to conduct worldwide expeditionary crisis response. The purpose of the Marine Corps is not to sit and wait on islands, but to serve as the Nation's shock troops, to be forward deployed on Navy ships always ready to be thrown into any crisis. Marines arrive rapidly to any crisis ready to deter, assist, and fight. In the Pacific and around the world, Marine worldwide crisis response provides US policy makers with options and with deterrence.
The US IndoPacCom Commander has a big job to accomplish in the Pacific, and the US Commander-in-Chief, has a big job to accomplish around the world. Neither of them has much use for US Marine island missile units, but both have a great need for a forward deployed, combined arms, crisis response force of Marines.
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Military Times - 05/14/2025
Army task forces ‘centerpiece’ for deterring China: INDOPACOM boss
By Todd South
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Indo-Pacific Command - April 2025
Command Posture Statement
Admiral Samuel J. Paparo, Commander, US Indo-Pacific Command
https://armedservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/indopacom_posture_statement_2025.pdf
A Corps without a mission....who needs it. "Today SecNav Phelan and I announce that the Marine Corps unable to meet its Title X statutory mandates, and due to the lack of amphibious lift support to be found anytime in the next decade, no longer have a relevant mission. The DOD can save a strong $38 Billion annually by reducing the Corps to a largely ceremonial role here in Washington DC> America doesn't need a Corps but wants one and we feel that the traditional Tuesday and Friday evening parades from Memorial Day to Labor are sufficient to meet the public demand. Of course the "Presidents Own" will continue to perform from time to time as POTUS requests.!" From the desk fo the SecDef.
When does the light go on at HQMC, you're going in the wrong direction. You need a course correction.
Sadly based on the results thus far, it does not seem likely that the SecNav is going to do much other than answer calls at 0130 in the morning from POTUS asking where the ships are. The senior flag officers of the Navy and Marine Corps have worked hard to put the nation in a precarious position regards sea power and force projection. Pity we can't reward them with a hardy hand shake and nice pension and send them down the Potomac to retirement homes.
All those whose heads have not been inserted into dark, remote places have known, for a long time, what a foolish exercise this has been. Marines sitting on the sidelines, sucking their thumbs is not a good look for our once proud, competent Corps. Appealing to common sense doesn’t work with those people, maybe ridicule will. Semper Fi