In Washington, the U.S. Army is engaged in trying to avoid being left behind in the rush to reorient against China, a rush dominated by the Navy and the Air Force. Speaking at the Landpower in the Pacific conference, sponsored by the U.S. Military Academy’s Modern War Institute, Maj. Gen. Brad Gericke, the Army’s director for strategy, plans and policy, spoke in terms more reminiscent of the 19th century’s “Great Game.”
“I would argue that the land domain is the essential domain. Is it enabling? Yes, but it is decisive,” he told the conference, reported Breaking Defense. “The point is, that it is Asia that is the prize. We call it the Pacific, but Asia is the prize. And that’s where power, that’s where economic, military, social informational power is going to primarily emanate from over the next century.”
In Beijing, the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI) drew attention to the presence of a US Navy hydrographic survey vessel in the South China Sea. The USNS Mary Sears, a Pathfinder-class oceanographic survey ship, entered the South China Sea on Sept. 26, according to the SCSPI, reported Global Times. It was south of Hainan from Oct. 1 to 4, was off the coast of Vietnam from Oct. 5-9, and then moved near the Nansha Islands. Also of note, is the collision of the submarine USS Connecticut with an unknown object in the same area on Oct. 2. It is not known, of course, whether the submarine was coordinating its movements with the Mary Sears. The oceanographic data collected by the Pathfinder class ships “helps to improve technology in undersea warfare and enemy ship detection,” according to a US Navy fact sheet.
