U.S. military eyes Guam as staging post to counter threats
Thai News Agency MCOT
January 3, 2010
The United States plans to fortify Guam, upgrading its military base on the island into a strategic staging post that would allow rapid access to potential flashpoints in the Pacific region.
More troops, including 9,182 Marines, army soldiers and their dependents from Okinawa, Japan, will be relocated to this island, while more than 9,000 transient troops, mainly from the navy’s carrier strike group, will also be based here.
The ”overarching purpose” of beefing up Guam as a military fortress is ”to provide mutual defense, deter aggression, and dissuade coercion in the Western Pacific Region, according to a draft impact report recently released by the U.S. Defense Department.
The proposed buildup would allow U.S. military forces to respond to regional threats and contingencies in a ”flexible” and ”timely manner” as they work to ”defend U.S., Japan and allied interests,” the study says.
”Moving these forces to Guam would place them on the furthest forward element of sovereign U.S. territory in the Pacific, thereby maximizing their freedom of action,” it says.
According to the report, the United States envisions Guam as a ”local command and control structure” manned, equipped, trained, and sustained by a modern logistics infrastructure.
The relocation and buildup cost, including expansion of infrastructure needed to maintain a permanent base for Marines and U.S. Army troops on Guam and Tinian, an island 160 kilometers to the northeast, is pegged at $12 billion.
Japan has agreed to chip in $6.09 billion of the total.
The plan would entail ”increased operational activities,” more frequent berthing by aircraft carriers and other warships, building aviation training ranges and upgrading of harbors, wharves and ports.
The existing Andersen Air Force Base on Guam would be expanded to include the air elements of the Marines. A new Marine base would be built ”right next door,” …
