Asia Might See Greater US Military Presence To Counter China’s Growing Influence

The Pentagon is considering curtailing some of its units in the Middle East and sending heavily armed Marine Corps Expeditionary Units to East Asia to amid plans to reposition forces to check China’s growing influence in the region, reports The Wall Street Journal.

This move will be the first concrete steps taken by the current administration to increase its presence in Asia after United States President Donald Trump announced the National Defense Strategy (NDS) in December.

The NDS, along with a new national security plan forms part of the United States’ plans to slowly move out of the Middle East and realign its troops to counter China and Russia. It also comes out at a time rife with nuclear threats from North Korea.

The shift will see both personnel and hardware deployments being shifted as the US re-assesses the threats it sees.

Officials of the Department of Defense said that regular deployments of Marine Expeditionary Units (MEUs) would enhance US military capabilities in the Pacific. Currently 50,000 US servicemen are stationed in Japan, including 18,000 marines while 29,500 are stationed in South Korea and another 7,000 in Guam.

MEUs are groups of 2,200 marines who use amphibious assault ships that are similar to small aircraft carriers. MEUs can undertake sea, air and ground combat and perform resucue, support and logistical operations. A standard MEU consists of helicopters, tanks, aircraft, and other weapons.

Other initiatives, including those previously announced are the deployment of broader anti-terrorism units in the Philippines, littoral combat ships for Singapore and Joint Strike Fighters for Japan.

MEUs were deployed in many areas in the Middle East, namely Iraq and Syria and were the first to arrive on the scene prior to freeing the city of Mosul from the Islamic State (IS).