Japanese soldiers and US marines take part in a joint amphibious exercise in Japan in March last year. Photo: Kyodo
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https://scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3206221/us-looks-deter-china-sprinkling-japanese-islands-missile-armed-marines East Asia
US looks to deter China by sprinkling missile-armed marines across Japanese islands
- Japan hosts 18,000 US marines, mostly on Okinawa Island. A reorganisation could see them dispersed throughout island chain bounding the East China Sea
- The marines reportedly plan to cut aircraft numbers and dump heavy artillery and armour in favour of missiles and drones to operate in contested areas
US Marines take part in joint exercises with members of Japan’s Ground Self-Defence Force in December 2021. Photo: Kyodo
The United States wants to disperse its marines throughout Japan’s Okinawa islands by 2026, arming them with missiles and lighter gear to deter China’s military, according to reports.
The US has already told Japan about the reorganisation, which it will announce after a two-plus-two meeting in Washington on Wednesday between Japan’s ministers of defence and foreign affairs and their US counterparts, the Yomiuri newspaper reported.
Officials at Japan’s defence ministry were unavailable for comment. A foreign ministry official declined to comment on the report, but said Japan and the US “will discuss matters regarding issues on the US Forces Japan, including the realignment of the US Forces Japan”.
The creation of the new units, called Marine Littoral Regiments, is part of a major reorganisation of the US Marine Corps outlined by its commandant, General David Berger, in 2020 in his Force Design 2030 paper.
At the time Berger said he wanted those units to work closely with Japan’s Self-Defence Forces to prevent easy access to the Pacific for China’s military.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing on Tuesday that bilateral military cooperation between the US and Japan “should not harm the interests of third parties and regional peace and stability.”
Under the littoral regiment concept, the marines are cutting aircraft numbers, and dumping most of their cannon artillery and heavy armour in favour of smaller “dispersed” forces equipped with missiles and drones that can operate in contested areas.
Japan hosts 18,000 US marines, the biggest concentration outside the United States. Most of them are in bases on the main Okinawan island, which is part of a chain that stretches along the edge of the East China Sea to within about 100km (62 miles) of Taiwan.
That large US military presence has fuelled local resentment, with Okinawa’s government asking other parts of Japan host some of the force. Although reorganisation may not increase the number of US marines in Okinawa, dispersing them could mean a broader presence along the island chain.
Consisting of about 1,800 to 2,000 personnel per unit, Marine Littoral Regiments are capable of flexibly deploying small groups of marines to remote islands for securing footholds to attack enemies and support US or allied warships.
The new unit in Okinawa is hoped to counter potential advances by the Chinese military.
In March, the US Indo-Pacific Command said it established a Marine Littoral Regiment in Hawaii, the first of its kind in the US Marine Corps. Biden’s administration is also considering creating another MLR in Guam by reforming two existing regiments in the prefecture, according to the sources.
The MLR deployment in Okinawa is unlikely to affect a current US Marine Corps transfer plan of relocating around 9,000 personnel to Guam and Hawaii among other locations while leaving some 10,000 in Okinawa, Japanese and US diplomatic sources said.
In its three key defence documents updated last month, the Japanese government pledged to strengthen military units in Okinawa to defend the southwestern remote islands, while calling China “the greatest strategic challenge”.
Additional reporting by Kyodo