Army aviators stationed around the Pacific Ocean have had to put some of their maritime flight training on hold as the service implements its controversial aviation restructure initiative (ARI), but the addition of AH-64 Apaches to the region will ultimately boost interoperability with other services and allied militaries, the Army’s top commander in the region said.
“We think it’s important in the Pacific region for our aviators to be experienced in over-water operations,” Gen. Vincent Brooks, commander of U.S. Army Pacific said Dec. 8 at a Defense Writers Group breakfast. “Whether it’s on the Korean peninsula or off the coast of Alaska, it’s going into the Arctic Circle, which we have to be prepared to do, or whether it’s operating from Hawaii … all of them would demand that we have the ability to operate across traditional domains.”
“Aviation in support of land operations is not all we do,” he added. “The joint team and the operating environment demand that we are more agile in going across domain and bringing capabilities to bear.”
Platforms including Boeing [BA] Apache attack helicopters and unmanned aerial systems like the Army’s Gray Eagle can operate effectively in maritime environments, augmenting assets the Navy already has in place, he said. In a theater that is defined and dominated by expanses of open ocean, Army pilots will have to perform more diverse missions than fly in support of land-based operations, Brooks added.
“We find that the way our operations need to occur in the Pacific and everywhere else in the world is that we do it jointly,” Brooks said. “Where we can provide the capabilities of one service into the…operations of another service, that’s where our competitive advantage is, frankly. That’s our skillset in joint operations.”
Army rotorcraft and unmanned aerial systems will increasingly integrate with Navy ships at sea. Brooks suggested missions such as extended range medical evacuation in mass casualty events at sea where wounded must be flown to land-based hospitals.
The pace at which the Army is integrating its aircraft with other services–and opportunities for joint training–has slowed because of the ARI, a plan to replace the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior armed scout with Apaches from the Army Guard and Reserve while saving billions in lifecycle and procurement costs, Brooks said.
“We are changing the configuration of aviation in the Pacific, particularly with an increase in the Apache helicopter being brought on board,” Brooks said. “As that is fulfilled between now and 2018, it will increase the number of systems that are similarly equipped,” Brooks said. “It will increase the opportunities for partnering with other countries that have purchased the Apache Helicopter…That’s one example of where we will have increased opportunity to share knowledge and skills and help build the capacity of some of our regional friends.”
Pacific heavy hitting militaries like Indonesia and India have purchased Apaches, enhancing interoperability with U.S. aircraft, Brooks said. The Army is pushing allies in the region to buy platforms and systems that operate well with U.S. equipment.
“We encourage countries to procure systems that work with ours,” Brooks said. “Ideally the same systems. Ideally American systems. We also seek where possible to get policy considerations that may constrain our ability to interoperate relaxed where appropriate.”
Brooks also is pushing for Army participation in a series of exercises called Pacific Pathways to bolster those initiatives and test the working relationships between allied militaries and their equipment. Sizable Army units participated in the Rim of the Pacific exercises in 2014 to develop those skills and will expand its involvement in the next RIMPAC exercise scheduled for 2016, Brooks said.
Pacific Pathways, which began in 2014, is a recurring exercise that teams U.S. forces with at least three other nations for complex exercises held in the western Pacific. By ensuring U.S. forces can operate seamlessly with their allies in the region, the Army can put “more faces in more places with less bases,” Brooks said. The goal is to establish protocols and procedures for projecting force around the region at an affordable price using existing funds.
Each exercise costs about $13 million which comes out to $39 million a year for three annual exercises. The plan is funded in the service’s five-year budget plan that runs from 2018 to 2022 while the events held in 2014 and 2015 were paid for by moving funds around within current allowances, he said.
“This is how we are moving money around—we are getting greater and greater leverage off of existing activity and building opportunities for other partners to generate readiness themselves that would already be committing dollars for readiness,” Brooks said.
Political and technical challenges remain before the United States can confidently expect Asian nations to cooperate consistently on a level equivalent to NATO members, Brooks said. While the United States has treaties with nations in the region, they are all bilateral. Culture also divides soldiers in the region’s militaries even when their technology works together.
“There’s still a deficit of trust in the Asia Pacific region among countries and so you don’t know who your partners are going to be until an issue arises,” Brooks said. “The type of systems that are necessary for us…to receive any number of players and still have our networks protected, but still enable the partners that come out there, demands for some technological solutions.”
During the 2014 Pacific Pathways, for example, U.S. and Indonesian soldiers both used the Harris [HRS] AN/PRC-117G radio, but did not speak the same language, Brooks said.
“Even if the radios could talk to each other the people couldn’t on the other end of it,” he said.