TIGHTENING THE CHAIN
IMPLEMENTING A STRATEGY OFMARITIME PRESSURE IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC

THOMAS G. MAHNKENTRAVIS SHARP BILLY FABIANPETER KOURETSOSTIGHTENING THE CHAIN
IMPLEMENTING A STRATEGY OFMARITIME PRESSURE IN
THE WESTERN PACIFIC
THOMAS G. MAHNKENTRAVIS SHARPBILLY FABIANPETER KOURETSOS

2019

ABOUT THE CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND
BUDGETARY ASSESSMENTS (CSBA)The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments is an independent, nonpartisan policy
research institute established to promote innovative thinking and debate about national security
strategy and investment options. CSBA’s analysis focuses on key questions related to existing andemerging threats to U.S. national security, and its goal is to enable policymakers to make informed
decisions on matters of strategy, security policy, and resource allocation.

©2019 Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. All rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Thomas G. Mahnken is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Strategic andBudgetary Assessments. He is a Senior Research Professor at the Philip Merrill Center for
Strategic Studies at The Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International
Studies (SAIS) and has served for over 20 years as an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve, to include
tours in Iraq and Kosovo. He currently serves as a member of the Congressionally mandated
National Defense Strategy Commission and as a member of the Board of Visitors of Marine
Corps University. His previous government career includes service as Deputy Assistant Secretaryof Defense for Policy Planning from 2006–2009, where he helped craft the 2006 Quadrennial
Defense Review and 2008 National Defense Strategy. He served on the staff of the 2014 National
Defense Panel, 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review Independent Panel, and the Commission on theIntelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction. He servedin the Defense Department’s Office of Net Assessment and as a member of the Gulf War Air Power
Survey. In 2009 he was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service
and in 2016 the Department of the Navy Superior Civilian Service Medal.
Travis Sharp is a Research Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He
directs the budget program and works to educate and inform policymakers, senior leaders, and thegeneral public about the defense budget and issues pertaining to resourcing national security. He
also serves as an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve while completing his Ph.D. in security studies
at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Travis has
held positions with academic and policy organizations, including George Washington University’s
Institute for Security and Conflict Studies, West Point’s Modern War Institute, the Office of theSecretary of Defense, the Center for a New American Security, and the Center for Arms Control and
Non-Proliferation. He has published think tank monographs, journal articles, and commentaries on
defense spending and strategy, cybersecurity, and military-to-military contacts between great power
rivals, the topic of his dissertation. Mr. Sharp is a past recipient of the Sasakawa Young Leaders
Fellowship, the A.B. Krongard and John Parker Compton Fellowships at Princeton, the 1LT Bacevich
Fellowship at CNAS, the Harold Rosenthal Fellowship in International Relations, and the Herbert
Scoville Peace Fellowship.
Billy Fabian is a Research Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. His
research focuses on military strategy and operations, future warfighting concepts, and land warfare.
Prior to joining CSBA, Billy worked as Senior Strategic Analyst in the Office of the Deputy Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development, where he assisted in the developmentof the 2018 National Defense Strategy. He has also served as Strategic Planner in the U.S. Army’s
Office of Strategy, Plans, and Policy in the Pentagon, and as a Presidential Management Fellow at
the Center for Army Analysis on Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Billy served as an Infantry officer in the U.S.
Army from 2003--2009.
Peter Kouretsos is an Analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. At CSBA
his work focuses on U.S. defense policy and strategy, long term competition, future warfare, andWestern Hemisphere security. In addition, Pete assists in the design and analysis of CSBA’soperational-level wargames and concept development workshops. Prior to CSBA, Pete was the
Research Assistant at the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies. His previous experience also
includes work in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy’s Office of Strategy & ForceDevelopment. He is a member of the Military Operations Research Society.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank Ross Babbage, Hal Brands, Bryan Clark, Evan Montgomery, Major
General Mick Ryan, Toshi Yoshihara, and several reviewers who wish to remain anonymous fortheir insightful comments on previous drafts of this report. We would also like to thank Kamilla
Gunzinger for her editing and publication support. The analysis and findings presented here arenonetheless solely the responsibility of the authors. CSBA receives funding from a broad anddiverse group of contributors, including private foundations, government agencies, and corporations. A complete list of these organizations can be found on our website at www.csbaonline.org/
about/contributors.
Cover: First land-based Naval Strike Missile launch performed at RIMPAC 2018 exercise. U.S. Armyphoto by David Hogan.

Contents
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 1Strategy in Brief. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Advantages of a Maritime Pressure Strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Contributions of the Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
CHAPTER 2: STRATEGIC CONTEXT.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 11
What Are the U.S. Concerns About China’s Rise?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Chinese Moves and American Countermoves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
What the Force Might Need to Do: Future Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
CHAPTER 3: CONCEPTS, CAPABILITIES, AND COORDINATIONFOR A STRATEGY OF MARITIME PRESSURE.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 27
Solving the Problems: Inside-Out as a Point of Departure Operational Concept. . . . . . . . . . . 27
What the Force Is Doing: Current Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Recommended Changes to Concepts, Capabilities, and Coordination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Anticipating Chinese Reactions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
CHAPTER 4: POTENTIAL COSTS.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 59
Estimated Costs through 2024. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
CHAPTER 5: NEXT STEPS.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 69
LIST OF ACRONYMS.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 72

FIGURESFIGURE 1: TYRANNY OF DISTANCE AND TIME IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
FIGURE 2: LITTORAL EAST ASIA FROM CHINA’S PERSPECTIVE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
FIGURE 3: NOTIONAL MULTI-DOMAIN GROUND UNIT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  29
FIGURE 4: INSIDE-OUT DEFENSE OVERVIEW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  31
FIGURE 5: OVERLAPPING COVERAGE OF GROUND-BASED SEA-DENIAL SYSTEMS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  32
FIGURE 6: MEASURES TO IMPROVE RESILIENCY OF INSIDE FORCES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  35
FIGURE 7: LAND-BASED LONG-RANGE STRIKE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  36
FIGURE 8: CURRENT AND FUTURE U.S. ARMY GROUND-LAUNCHED SYSTEMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  51

TABLESTABLE 1: COSTS OF MARITIME PRESSURE STRATEGY, 2020–2024 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  60

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CHAPTER 1

Introduction
The U.S. military has a problem in the Western Pacific: the tyranny of distance and time.
Delivering military force across the vast Pacific Ocean has never been easy, even for a country
as blessed in resources and ingenuity as the United States. The problem has worsened as
America’s chief regional rival, China, has improved its ability to harm American interests
quickly with limited forewarning. China’s military capabilities have increasingly matured tothe point where, if directed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the People’s Liberation
Army (PLA) could launch a rapid attack to change the status quo, including territorial seizure,
before the United States could meaningfully respond, thus presenting Washington and its
allies with a fait accompli.1 American forces located outside the conflict area would have topenetrate China’s anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) network to restore the status quo ante,
a daunting proposition.2 As General Robert Neller, commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps,
remarked, “We are going to have to fight to get to the fight.”3 Under these circumstances,
American political leaders might face the unenviable choice of doing nothing or escalating tohigher levels of violence. Either way, the national interests of both the United States and its
closest allies would suffer dramatically.

1

The report uses fait accompli in the sense of “a quick, decisive transformation of the situation” before the other side
can immediately react. For definitional discussion see Ahmer Tarar, “A Strategic Logic of the Military Fait Accompli,”International Studies Quarterly 60, no. 4, December 2016, pp. 743–744.

2

Following the Department of Defense (DoD), the report defines anti access (A2) as “Action, activity, or capability, usually
long-range, designed to prevent an advancing enemy force from entering an operational area.” It defines area denial (AD)as “Action, activity, or capability, usually short-range, designed to limit an enemy force’s freedom of action within an
operational area.” Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), DOD Dictionary of Military and AssociatedTerms (Washington, DC: JCS, February 2019), pp. 19–20.

3

Robert B. Neller, testimony before the House Appropriations Committee–Defense, March 7, 2018, p. 4.

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CSBA | TIGHTENING THE CHAIN

American policymakers are right to worry about such a scenario.4 History shows that
deterrence is more likely to fail when an aggressor believes it can pull off a fait accompli
successfully.5 Russia demonstrated as much by annexing Crimea in 2014 without provoking
meaningful resistance or counterattack. Chinese military doctrine emphasizes the need to
strike first to surprise the enemy, dictate the operational tempo, and achieve victory before
sustaining heavy losses.6 If the U.S. military fails to prepare now for a potential Chinese fait
accompli attempt, it will cede the ability to deter and, if necessary, defeat Chinese aggression.
This report proposes a military strategy of Maritime Pressure, which includes a new
Inside-Out Defense operational concept, to address the fait accompli problem. The strategy
and concept entail fielding precision-strike networks, particularly land-based anti-ship andanti-air capabilities, along the First Island Chain to contest China’s ability to achieve gains
through aggression quickly and without paying steep costs in blood, treasure, and reputation.
Numerous analysts have proposed similar approaches over the past decade, but the report
goes beyond previous studies by outlining a new operational concept, assessing potential
Chinese responses, and estimating the budgetary costs of implementing it.
As a defensive-oriented denial strategy, Maritime Pressure can complement or substitute foralternative approaches such as blockade operations or punishment strikes against mainland
China. Those alternatives, although potentially useful as part of a broader campaign to prevail
in a protracted conflict with China, would likely not achieve success rapidly enough to thwart a
fait accompli and could escalate the conflict beyond the risk tolerances of U.S. and allied political leaders. Without a strategy designed to prevent a fait accompli, the United States mightlose a war before alternative approaches have time to be effective.
The Maritime Pressure strategy answers the call by the National Defense Strategy Commission
to prepare for great power competition by “develop[ing] new operational concepts to achieve
strategic advantage,” including “establishing a forward-deployed defense-in-depth posture”
to deter Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific region.7 The strategy also capitalizes on recent
policy developments, most notably the U.S. decision to withdraw from the 1987 IntermediateRange Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty banning ground-launched missiles with ranges from 500
to 5,500 km. Finally, the strategy builds on a decade of CSBA wargaming experience alongwith a recent CSBA study, Piercing the Fog of Peace, which explored how Chinese military

4

Elbridge A. Colby, testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, January 29, 2019, pp. 3–4; and U.S. Army
Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), The U.S. Army in Multi-Domain Operations, TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-1(Fort Eustis, VA: U.S. Army, December 2018), p. v.

5Alexander L. George and Richard Smoke, Deterrence in American Foreign Policy: Theory and Practice (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1974), pp. 536–547.

6

Toshi Yoshihara, “Chinese Missile Strategy and the U.S. Naval Presence in Japan: The Operational View from Beijing,”
Naval War College Review 63, no. 3, Summer 2010, pp. 53–54.

7

National Defense Strategy (NDS) Commission, Providing for the Common Defense: The Assessment andRecommendations of the National Defense Strategy Commission (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace,2018), pp. 27, 34.

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modernization has rendered questionable a series of strategic and operational assumptions
that have undergirded U.S. force planning for years.8
The remainder of Chapter 1 summarizes the strategy, including its potential costs, before
highlighting its advantages and situating it among previous studies. Chapter 2 sketches thestrategic context by discussing concerns about China’s rise, Chinese moves and Americancountermoves, and potential U.S. military requirements for a Sino-American conflict. Chapter
3 outlines the operational concepts, capabilities, and coordination needed to implement thestrategy, along with potential Chinese responses. Chapter 4 examines illustrative budgetary
costs through 2024. Chapter 5 concludes by summarizing the next steps needed to execute thestrategy.

Strategy in Brief
The strategy of Maritime Pressure aims to persuade Chinese leaders that attempting military aggression in the Western Pacific will fail, thus discouraging them from trying it. The
strategy gives the PLA a taste of its own A2/AD medicine, improving America’s prospects
in both peace and war. The strategy calls for establishing highly survivable precision-strike
networks along the First Island Chain featuring increased quantities of U.S. and allied groundbased missiles backed by naval, air, electronic warfare, and other capabilities. These networks
would be operationally decentralized and geographically dispersed along the archipelagos of
the Western Pacific.9 The networks would function as an “inside” force optimized to attack the
PLA from within China’s A2/AD threat envelope, supported by “outside” air and naval forcesable to join the fight from further afield.10 To use a football analogy, the survivable inside strike
networks would act as a defensive line while the mobile outside air and naval forces would act
as linebackers.11
Implementing this Inside-Out Defense concept will require some U.S. forces to operate andsurvive within range of Chinese missiles.12 This forward posture would differ from the current
expeditionary model focused on marshaling massive combat power and then gaining dominance in all domains before counterattacking decisively. In a fait accompli scenario, the8Thomas G. Mahnken, Grace B. Kim, and Adam Lemon, Piercing the Fog of Peace: Developing Innovative Operational
Concepts for a New Era (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, 2019).

9

The geographical aspect explains why a related approach is called “Archipelagic Defense.” Andrew F. Krepinevich Jr.,“How to Deter China: The Case for Archipelagic Defense,” Foreign Affairs 94, no. 2, March/April 2015, pp. 78–86.

10

Art Corbett, “Stand-In Forces: Disrupting the Current Struggle for Dominance,” Marine Corps Gazette 103, no. 2, 2019,
pp. 27–29. Together, the forces would form a “blunt” layer designed to buy time and space for additional “surge” layer
forces to arrive in the theater. DoD, Summary of the 2018 National Defense Strategy of the United States of America:
Sharpening the American Military’s Competitive Edge (Washington, DC: DoD, January 2018), p. 7.

11

The “linebacker” terminology is used by Andrew F. Krepinevich Jr., China, the South China Sea, and Archipelagic Defense(Washington, DC: Hudson Institute, February 1, 2018), p. 22.

12

The name “Inside-Out” was inspired by Mark Gunzinger with Chris Dougherty, Outside-In: Operating from Range to
Defeat Iran’s Anti-Access and Area-Denial Threats (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments,2011).

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expeditionary model takes too much time. If the U.S. military does not demonstrate theability to delay, degrade, and deny a PLA attack from the outset, the Chinese leadership might
believe it can perpetrate aggression before the United States arrives in force. Making theforward posture credible will require American and allied military forces to coordinate acrossthe Services’ traditional domains. Cross-domain operations would become the norm under aMaritime Pressure strategy, to include Army and Marine Corps forces launching ground-based
anti-ship missiles against targets at sea.
Land-based anti-ship, anti-air, and electronic warfare capabilities form the backbone of the
Inside-Out concept. Although air and naval forces possess the advantage of strategic and operational mobility, ground and amphibious forces ashore possess the advantage of survivability.
Ground forces can harden themselves and exploit terrain for concealment and dispersal,
forcing the enemy to acquire precise targeting and expend many munitions to attack themsuccessfully.13 Amphibious forces can create and exploit temporal and geographic uncertainty
to impose costs on the enemy. For decades, America’s enemies have exploited the advantagesof mobile land-based forces against the U.S. military.14 It is time for the United States to turnthe tables.
Land-based strike forces deployed along the First Island Chain would anchor the defense
against a Chinese attack. Upon warning, the forces would move to pre-selected, dispersed
positions after potentially linking up with pre-positioned equipment. Forward-based air forces
would disperse to expeditionary airfields under new adaptive basing concepts. Naval forces
would sortie to locations behind the First Island Chain or hug the coastlines to reduce theirsignatures. Using land-based forces to contest Chinese offensive operations will free up U.S.
surface ships and aircraft to perform higher-priority tasks, such as striking critical nodes in
China’s surveillance and sustainment systems. The ships and aircraft could operate from theless-threatening environs beyond the First Island Chain. They would plug gaps in forward
defenses and exploit opportunities created by land-based strike networks. Coordinatedproperly, the joint force could achieve the virtues of mass without the vulnerabilities ofconcentration by spreading its combat power over many smaller points of operation rather
than focusing it in a few bigger bases.15
The highly contested communications environment might require individual commanders
to lead operations without continuous connectivity with higher echelons and without information from space-based assets. Yet American combat leaders possess individual initiative
second to none. If given a desired outcome and the tools to achieve it, they will find a way

13

Ground forces also can leverage internal lines of communication and sustain themselves more readily than aircraft andships under some conditions.

14

William Rosenau, Special Operations Forces and Elusive Enemy Ground Targets: Lessons from Vietnam and thePersian Gulf War (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2001).

15

Megan Eckstein, “Marine Aviation, Weapons Upgrades Would Support Advance BaseOperations,” USNI News, January 30, 2017, available at https://news.usni.org/2017/01/30/
marine-aviation-weapons-upgrades-would-support-advance-base-operations.

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to succeed. Many PLA commanders cannot yet say the same.16 Additionally, Americancommanders are unlikely to fight alone; U.S. allies who are acquiring their own land-based
sea- and air-denial systems will also likely be involved. Using new unmanned aerial andsurface platforms, troposcatter communications, and stratospheric systems, U.S. forces would
form a terrestrial command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance,and reconnaissance (C4ISR) architecture that would degrade more gracefully than legacy
systems, permitting U.S. and allied militaries to continue operations even in a contested electromagnetic environment.
Chapter 3 includes a list of numerous actions needed to implement the strategy of Maritime
Pressure outlined here. Among other things, the Department of Defense (DoD) should:•

Develop this report’s approach into a joint operational concept;•

Experiment with new organizational structures for ground forces in the Pacific;•

Develop sustainment concepts to support a Maritime Pressure strategy;•

Accelerate fielding of mobile, land-based, long-range missile capabilities;•

Build a resilient multi-domain C4ISR architecture and develop and field counter-C4ISR
capabilities;•

Integrate all bomber aircraft with payloads for offensive maritime missions;•

Deepen cooperation with Indo-Pacific allies and partners; and•Reexamine Service roles and missions.

CSBA estimates that these actions would cost from $8 billion to $13 billion by 2024 dependingon the specific investments selected by DoD. The costs represent additional spending beyond
what DoD’s five-year budget plan currently contains. Longer-term costs could total $30 billion
or more depending on how extensively DoD reorganized its forces and posture in the decades
ahead. Although significant, such costs are affordable—especially if DoD spends less on legacy
forces unsuited to contested environments and spends more on the innovative concepts andcapabilities proposed by this report.

16

Dennis J. Blasko, testimony before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, February 7, 2019.

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Advantages of a Maritime Pressure Strategy
A Maritime Pressure strategy offers distinct advantages for deterrence, war fighting, and longterm peacetime competition. Maritime Pressure involves deterrence by denial, the processof persuading an adversary that attempting to achieve gains through aggression will fail.17
Deterrence by denial is a strong form of deterrence because it uses uncertainty about success,not fear of punishment, to convince a potential aggressor not to attack.18 Resolved Chinese
leaders might willingly endure punishment if they believed that they could strike quickly,
achieve their military objective, and secure a political fait accompli. By creating doubt in theirminds about executing this gambit, Maritime Pressure discourages them from attempting it in
the first place.19 Forward positioning American forces in key locales will increase allies’ confidence that the United States stands ready to assist them should hostilities erupt, raising thebar for their own contributions to collective defense and stiffening their resolve to push backagainst Chinese coercion.
The strategy of Maritime Pressure envisions fielding flexible military forces that will give theUnited States and its allies a warfighting advantage. The U.S. military clearly must improve
its ability to repel aggression by operating more effectively in contested A2/AD environments. Maritime Pressure describes how to make such improvements starting now.20 The
recommended U.S. forces will complicate China’s military planning in potential contingencies involving Taiwan, the South China Sea, and the East China Sea. The strategy leverages
geography to America’s advantage by transforming islands within the First Island Chain into
defensive strong points that can withstand Chinese assaults. Mobile missiles placed on theseislands will be difficult for China to locate, track, and destroy thanks to the challenges associated with finding ground-based targets amid the complexities of the earth’s surface.21 To
sustain a military campaign under these conditions, China will have to expend more materiel,
incur more risk, and commit more time, undercutting the advantages it might hope to gain
through a swift surprise attack. In sum, Maritime Pressure places the United States and its
allies in the best possible position to withstand Chinese aggression should deterrence fail.

17

Glenn H. Snyder, Deterrence and Defense: Toward a Theory of National Security (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press, 1961), pp. 35–36; and John J. Mearsheimer, Conventional Deterrence (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983),
pp. 28–66, 203–208. Snyder concludes failure can be political or operational. A significantly delayed gain may be too
costly to be politically viable, making the operation infeasible.

18

For useful summaries see Edward Rhodes, “Conventional Deterrence,” Comparative Strategy 19, no. 3, July–September
2000, pp. 221–223; and Michael S. Gerson, “Conventional Deterrence in the Second Nuclear Age,” Parameters 39, no. 3,
Fall 2009, pp. 36–39.

19

Such a strategy also imposes significant costs on an adversary by attriting its valuable military forces. To be clear, thereport does not recommend abandoning deterrence by punishment. Rather, it recommends increasing the relativeemphasis on deterrence by denial in the Western Pacific.

20

Evan Braden Montgomery, “Contested Primacy in the Western Pacific: China’s Rise and the Future of U.S. Power
Projection,” International Security 38, no. 4, Spring 2014, pp. 115–149.

21

Stephen Biddle and Ivan Oelrich, “Future Warfare in the Western Pacific: Chinese Antiaccess/Area Denial, U.S. AirSea
Battle, and Command of the Commons in East Asia,” International Security 41, no. 1, Summer 2016, pp. 12–13.

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Maritime Pressure steers the Sino-American political-military competition in a direction thatshould prove advantageous to the United States and its allies over the long run. Attempting
to overcome American A2/AD investments could push China toward prioritizing short-range
counter-A2/AD improvements over long-range power projection investments.22 Such an
outcome would appeal to the United States and its allies since it would keep China ensnared
in its maritime backyard within the First Island Chain. Even if the PLA eventually developed
capabilities to challenge the American and allied A2/AD network, finding and engaging mobile
U.S. ground forces would be time-consuming. The PLA might try circumventing the groundforces as the United States did against Japan during World War II. However, that Chinesecountermove likely would fail if U.S. ground-based missiles possessed long ranges and had
support from U.S. air and naval forces, as proposed in this report.
Alternatively, China might view popping the American and allied A2/AD bubble as too risky
and expensive and, as a result, shift attention and resources away from its eastern maritime
frontier to its western land frontier. President Xi Jinping has increased Chinese involvement
in continental Asia through his Belt and Road Initiative, so Maritime Pressure might reinforce
an existing preference within the Chinese government for westward expansion.
On the negative side, Maritime Pressure might encourage China to escalate horizontally byshifting the competition to other domains, including the economic or diplomatic spheres.
China might exert non-military pressure to dissuade U.S. allies and partners in the region
from cooperating with the United States. That would challenge Washington to preserve alliance unity. This type of tit-for-tat interaction is the nature of strategic competition. Despite
the risk, a Maritime Pressure strategy represents a feasible, affordable, and sophisticatedapproach for responding to China’s rise in the years ahead.

Contributions of the Report
Several previous studies have argued that the United States and its allies should deploy
ground-based precision-strike networks in the Western Pacific. The studies use different
names to describe that approach, including a Porcupine Strategy,23 War at Sea,24 Mini-A2/AD

22

Jim Thomas and Evan Braden Montgomery, “Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Sino-American Competition,” inThomas G. Mahnken, ed., Competitive Strategies for the 21st Century: Theory, History, and Practice (Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press, 2012), p. 262.

23

William S. Murray, “Revisiting Taiwan’s Defense Strategy,” Naval War College Review 61, no. 3, Summer 2008, pp.
12–38.

24

Jeffrey E. Kline and Wayne P. Hughes Jr., “Between Peace and the Air-Sea Battle,” Naval War College Review 65, no. 4,
Autumn 2012, pp. 35–41.

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Complexes,25 AirSeaLand Battle,26 Maritime Denial,27 Archipelagic Defense,28 Active Denial,29Blue A2/AD,30 Elastic Denial in Depth,31 and Island Forts.32 Although these studies exhibit
differences, such as emphasizing the roles of various countries and critiquing alternative operational concepts to various degrees, they agree more than they disagree.33 For example, they
endorse fielding select A2/AD capabilities, such as larger inventories of ground-based missiles,
to persuade the Chinese leadership that it cannot achieve quick victory through military
aggression.34 By denying China the benefits of easy conquest, the United States and its allies
will bolster deterrence and, should deterrence fail, improve their ability to defeat Chinese
aggression and restore peace on favorable terms.35 The report builds on these ideas.
Whereas past studies have sketched the broad outlines of an operational concept, this reportprovides a more detailed roadmap for adopting a strategy of Maritime Pressure. It connects
strategy, concepts, and resources, providing guidance on the recommended approach
informed by more than a decade of CSBA-led wargaming and concept development workshops. Previous studies have tended to emphasize one aspect or another while sidestepping
specifics, especially details about budgetary implications.36 As Andrew Krepinevich noted,“Many details . . . will only become apparent after further research and analysis.”37 The ques-

25

Thomas and Montgomery, “Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Sino-American Competition,” pp. 257–274.

26

Toshi Yoshihara and James R. Holmes, “Asymmetric Warfare, American Style,” Proceedings 138, no. 4, April 2012.

27

Aaron L. Friedberg, Beyond Air-Sea Battle: The Debate over U.S. Military Strategy in Asia (New York: Routledge,
International Institute of Strategic Studies, 2014).

28

Krepinevich, “How to Deter China.”

29

Eric Heginbotham and Jacob L. Heim, “Deterring without Dominance: Discouraging Chinese Adventurism under
Austerity,” The Washington Quarterly 38, no. 1, Spring 2015, pp. 185–199.

30

Terrence K. Kelly, David C. Gompert, and Duncan Long, Smarter Power, Stronger Partners, Volume I (Santa Monica,
CA: RAND Corporation, 2016).

31

Michael A. Hunzeker and Alexander Lanoszka, A Question of Time: Enhancing Taiwan’s Conventional Deterrence
Posture (Arlington, VA: Center for Security Policy Studies, Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason
University, 2018).

32

Joseph Hanacek, “Island Forts: Land Forces Have Value in Air-Sea Battle,” Proceedings 145, no. 2, February 2019, pp.
38–42.

33

Mike Pietrucha and Jeremy Renken, “Strategic Architectures,” Leading Edge, August 4, 2015, available at https://leadingedgeairpower.com/2015/08/04/strategic-architectures/; and Jan van Tol, with Mark Gunzinger, Andrew F.
Krepinevich Jr., and Jim Thomas, AirSea Battle: A Point-of-Departure Operational Concept (Washington, DC: Center for
Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, 2010).

34

Andrew S. Erickson, “Deterrence by Denial: How to Prevent China from Using Force,” The National Interest, December
16, 2013, available at https://nationalinterest.org/commentary/war-china-two-can-play-the-area-denial-game-9564.

35

David Ochmanek et al., U.S. Military Capabilities and Forces for a Dangerous World: Rethinking the U.S. Approach toForce Planning (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2017).

36

An exception is the cost estimate presented in Timothy M. Bonds et al., What Role Can Land-Based, Multi-Domain AntiAccess/Area Denial Forces Play in Deterring or Defeating Aggression? (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2017),
pp. 136–147.

37

Andrew F. Krepinevich Jr., Archipelagic Defense: The Japan-U.S. Alliance and Preserving Peace and Stability in theWestern Pacific (Tokyo: Sasakawa Peace Foundation, 2017), p. 111.

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tion posed by Jeffrey Kline and Wayne Hughes—“What do the time-phased, programmatic
details look like?”—remains unanswered today.38 The report advances the conversation by
providing some concrete next steps.
The report comes at a time when the United States has committed itself to competing more
effectively with China. The momentum generated by the 2018 National Defense Strategy
has created a window of opportunity for policymakers to implement ideas that have been
circulating among strategists for the past decade. This report offers decision makers in the
Executive and Legislative branches and in allied capitals a blueprint for action to implement a
strategy of Maritime Pressure.
The report outlines a joint and combined operational concept. That is, it includes recommendations tailored to the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force, illustrating the vital role thateach Service will play in the proposed approach. It also discusses the role of allies. Previous
studies have tended to privilege certain Services over others. Some have argued, for example,
that prioritizing ground-based missiles will help the Army acquire its fair share of theresources devoted to competing with China.39 Although such arguments have a certain bureaucratic appeal, they risk spurring inter-Service conflict over problems that can only be solved
cooperatively. The report offers a more balanced assessment of what the Services should
contribute individually and collectively.

38

Kline and Hughes, “Between Peace and the Air-Sea Battle,” p. 39.

39

Jim Thomas, “Why the U.S. Army Needs Missiles,” Foreign Affairs 92, no. 3, May/June 2013, pp. 137–144.

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CHAPTER 2

Strategic Context
A sound military strategy exhibits clarity about the nature of the threat, the strengths that canbe marshaled against it, and the contexts in which confrontation might occur. This chapter
provides that foundation. The chapter first describes four concerns about China’s rise: its
predatory approach to external affairs, its growing maritime geopolitical orientation, its
cynical attitude toward the international status quo, and its autocratic political system. The
chapter then summarizes past Chinese moves and future American countermoves in the areasof geography, alliances, technology, and doctrine. Finally, the chapter analyzes the geographic
settings and campaign scenarios for a Sino-American conflict, identifying four operational
challenges for the U.S. military: rapidly blunting Chinese aggression at the outset of conflict,rapidly projecting power to reinforce forward forces within A2/AD environments, protecting
and sustaining forces and critical bases of operations, and gaining and maintaining information advantage while under attack. Solving the challenges becomes the goal of Chapter 3’s
Inside-Out concept.

What Are the U.S. Concerns About China’s Rise?
Four features of China’s rise concern the United States and its allies.40 The first concern
involves the CCP’s approach to external affairs, which often appears both predatory and corrosive to American interests. It is axiomatic that any country’s political leaders pay greaterattention to domestic matters than to international affairs. That is certainly true with the
CCP leadership, which is highly attentive to threats to domestic stability. Nevertheless, inrecent years China has become increasingly active on the international stage. It has exerted its
weight not only in its neighborhood, but also in areas far removed from the Asian continent,
including the Persian Gulf and Africa. The problem with China’s international activism, which
includes economic investments, political agreements, and military deployments, is that it too

40

See the discussion in Thomas G. Mahnken, “The Australia-U.S. Alliance in U.S. Strategic Policy,” in Peter J. Dean, Stephan
Frühling, and Brendan Taylor, eds., Australia’s American Alliance (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2016).

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often relies on exploitation and intimidation to achieve its purposes. For evidence look nofurther than Djibouti, a strategically situated nation deeply indebted to China which has had
little choice but to accept all manner of Chinese intrusions, welcome or otherwise.41
The second concern involves China’s geopolitical orientation. Whereas the PLA long focusedon the Asian continent, in recent decades it has increasingly adopted a maritime orientation. China intends its maritime orientation to negate the traditional American strength ofprojecting military power from afar. It is thus the buildup of the PLA Navy (PLAN) and PLA
Air Force (PLAAF), as well as other A2/AD (or, in Chinese parlance, counter-intervention)
capabilities such as missiles and anti-satellite weapons, which have stimulated U.S. and allied
responses, not Chinese military spending in the abstract.
A third concern, related to the previous two, stems from China’s cynical attitude toward
the international status quo. China’s leadership has challenged the status quo both rhetorically and, increasingly, through action. Nothing illustrates this more tangibly than China’s
campaign of building and then militarizing new land features in the South China Sea asa means of bolstering Beijing’s claim of ownership. While less dramatic than militarizing
islands, other Chinese actions have also undermined the rules upheld by the United Statessince World War II. Those actions include launching cyber attacks against critical civilian
infrastructure, pressuring foreign companies to ignore political oppression, stealing intellectual property, and using corruption networks to undermine governments.42 These actions are
not new, and many other countries have committed them, too. But the Chinese government
has done so at a scale and intensity that is deeply worrying.
A final concern revolves around China’s domestic political system. China’s authoritarian
government and disregard for human rights and personal freedom have caused tension with
the United States, its allies, and others in the region and beyond. Whatever U.S. leaders say,the CCP leadership firmly believes that the United States wants it to be overthrown.43 Under
Xi Jinping, the CCP has set about making the world safe for authoritarianism and establishinga Sino-centric alternative to the liberal international order. Under this model, the hallmark of
American global leadership—an open system of free trade and cooperative security buttressedby alliances, institutions, and rules—would succumb to a closed system in which transactional
dealings with Beijing determine the fates of nations. Such an outcome would undo 75 years’
worth of steadfast U.S. commitment to a liberal rules-based order.

41

Amy Cheng, “Will Djibouti Become Latest Country to Fall into China’s Debt Trap?” Foreign Policy, July 31, 2018, available
at https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/07/31/will-djibouti-become-latest-country-to-fall-into-chinas-debt-trap/.

42

Thomas Wright, “The Return to Great-Power Rivalry Was Inevitable,” The Atlantic, September
12, 2018, available at https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/09/
liberal-international-order-free-world-trump-authoritarianism/569881/.

43

Thomas G. Mahnken, Ross Babbage, and Toshi Yoshihara, Countering Comprehensive Coercion: Competitive Strategies
Against Authoritarian Political Warfare (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, 2018), pp.
43–50.

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If these four features changed—if China became more internally focused, emphasized the
Asian continent over its maritime periphery, accepted the status quo, and embraced greater
pluralism—then the United States and its allies would worry less about China’s rise. Indeed,
under those circumstances China might resemble today’s India, a rising power with growing
economic strength. Until that day comes, however, the United States is left with little choice
but to try and induce China to behave in ways that are least threatening to American interests and values. The authors contend that adopting a strategy of Maritime Pressure serves
that purpose. Further discussion of the strategy’s potential impacts on Chinese behavior are
deferred until after the Inside-Out concept in explained in Chapter 3. The rest of this chapter
focuses on the Sino-American balance of military power.

Chinese Moves and American Countermoves
China’s leadership has capitalized on several favorable asymmetries to pursue its aims.
Specifically, it has attacked four underpinnings of U.S. strategy: geography, alliances, technology, and doctrine. Together, these moves comprise China’s counter-intervention strategy.
First, the Chinese leadership has exploited a geographic asymmetry. China’s primary territorial concerns—Taiwan, the South China Sea, and the East China Sea—are far closer to its
mainland than they are to the United States. The United States has territory, allies, and interests in the Western Pacific but must traverse the expanse of the Pacific Ocean to defend them.
Even at the maximum speed of 30+ knots, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier based in San Diegowould take a week to travel the 6,500 mi to Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan (Figure 1). The
carrier’s various escort ships would have to refuel along the way. This example illustrates why
responding quickly is the toughest problem for U.S. planning in the Western Pacific—and why
China attempting a fait accompli is such a serious concern.
Second, the Chinese leadership has exploited a political asymmetry inherent in U.S. alliances.
It has used military power in general, and A2/AD capabilities in particular, to undermine theconfidence American allies and partners have in U.S. security guarantees. China has capitalized on the U.S reliance on increasingly vulnerable forward-based forces stationed on allied
territory. Chinese defense investments have simultaneously raised the cost to U.S. allies ofhosting American forces and lowered allies’ faith in America’s ability to defend them.
Third, Chinese leaders have exploited a technological asymmetry. The PLA has embraced
the growth and spread of precision-strike systems worldwide. It has developed and deployeda centralized, land-based reconnaissance-strike complex composed of long-range sensors,command and control networks, and precision weapons. The complex is backed by widearea surveillance and targeting, plentiful ballistic and cruise missiles, integrated air defense
systems, advanced fighter-bomber aircraft, a large submarine force, and modern surface
combatants. China’s complex efficiently holds at risk U.S. and allied air bases, ports, facilities,
and personnel in key areas of the Indo-Pacific region.

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Figure 1: Tyranny of Distance and Time
FIGURETYRANNYOF DISTANCEAND TIME IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC
in1:theWestern
Pacific

From Elmendorf:
3,000 nm

500 nmFrom San Diego:
5,400 nmBeijing

Tokyo
From Hawaii:
3,300 nmTaiwanStraitF-35 combat radius

From Norfolk:
10,500 nm

Guam

Singapore
From
Darwin:1,700 nm1

Finally, Chinese leaders have exploited a doctrinal asymmetry. The PLA has developed acounter-intervention doctrine to stifle U.S.-style power projection, which relies upon large
forward-based assets and carrier strike groups. The PLA developed this strategy after learningfrom the American military’s performance in the 1991 Gulf War and other conflicts, dissecting
U.S. exercises and operational deployments, reading U.S. joint doctrine, and conducting
extensive espionage.
China’s counter-intervention strategy endangers U.S. interests. It constrains U.S. options
to project military power, thereby undermining U.S. credibility among allies and friends.
It imposes considerable risks on U.S. armed forces as they seek to respond. It gives China
momentum in the Sino-American competition, forcing the United States into a costly reactivemode.
Any U.S. strategy to counter Chinese moves should seek to reverse all these trends. It should
yield an expanded set of U.S. and allied options while constraining those of China. It should
impose considerable costs upon Beijing. It should give the United States momentum in
the Sino-American competition, forcing China to respond to U.S. initiatives. A strategyof Maritime Pressure tackles these objectives by leveraging the same factors that Chinese
strategy has attacked.

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American Countermoves
China has stolen a march (or two) on the United States in the areas of geography, alliances,
technology, and doctrine. But these factors remain enduring American strengths. The strategyof Maritime Pressure reclaims them on behalf of the U.S. and allied militaries. The strategy’s
countermoves are previewed here before unpacking them in Chapter 3 (along with possible
Chinese counter-countermoves).

Figure 2: Littoral East Asia From
China’s
FIGURE
2: LITTORALPerspective
EAST ASIA FROM CHINA’S PERSPECTIVE

DarwinRota
SaipanGuamTinianPalau

Second Island Chain
Iwo Jima

LombokStraitMindanao

PHILIPPINE SEA

SULU SEA

BorneoPalawanHonshuFirst Island Chain

Luzon

Okinawa

Shikoku

Sunda
StraitSpratly
Islands

KyushuSEA OF JAPANSOUTH CHINA SEA

TaiwanEAST CHINA SEA

Malacca
StraitFujianShanghaiParacelIslands
Hong KingHainan2
Beijing

What applies to kings also applies to the Maritime Pressure strategy: Geography is dead, long
live geography. The strategy uses geography—in particular, the barrier formed by Japan,
Taiwan, the Philippines, and maritime and peninsular Southeast Asia—to constrain China’s
access beyond the Western Pacific during crisis or war. Looking “out” from mainland China, anatural chain of islands limits Chinese entry to the greater Pacific and Indian Oceans, save fora handful of narrow straits alongside Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia(Figure 2). Chinese literature reveals a deeply felt insecurity about these near-seas areas andan urgent desire to control them. The PLA seeks to dictate military operations within thisFirst Island Chain, a geographic area that holds deep symbolic value for Chinese leaders.44
The Chinese leadership has wagered that air and sea power combined with ample land-based
missiles will prevent encirclement. Maritime Pressure subverts this Chinese belief by fielding

44

Andrew S. Erickson and Joel Wuthnow, “Barriers, Springboards and Benchmarks: China Conceptualizes the Pacific‘Island Chains’,” The China Quarterly 225, March 2016, pp. 1–22; and Krepinevich, Archipelagic Defense, p. 63.

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U.S. land-based precision strike networks to menace the straits that Chinese merchant andwar ships must transit to exit the East and South China Seas.45
Maritime Pressure makes full use of U.S. alliances, probably the most significant advantage in
America’s long-term competition with China. The strategy calls for deepening collaboration
with allies on sensitive military plans, including theater strike operations. Deeper collaboration will strengthen allied resolve and improve combined effectiveness. While the UnitedStates already shares information with allies, increasing that sharing will prove mutually
beneficial. Chinese leaders should perceive the strategy as credible because it entails fewer
escalatory risks than more aggressive approaches, meaning American and allied leaders will
not be self-deterred from using it. The strategy also strengthens crisis stability by increasing
the resilience of American and allied military forces.46 By decreasing the damage that China
could hope to inflict through a surprise attack, Maritime Pressure reduces China’s incentive tolaunch one.
In terms of technology, the strategy recommends developing and deploying countermeasures
to China’s precision-strike systems. It endorses fielding a U.S. and allied A2/AD network. Key
American investments would include land-based anti-ship and anti-air weapons, along withcounter-C4ISR capabilities. Many of these capabilities already exist and are less costly thantheir alternatives, especially expensive fighter aircraft and surface ships.47 By investing morein the recommended capabilities, the United States can invest proportionately less in pricier
alternatives—and thus avoid busting its budget. The United States possesses the technologicalcapacity to field select A2/AD capabilities efficiently and effectively.48 China, by contrast, will
be hard-pressed organizationally and budgetarily to field new technologies capable of overcoming American A2/AD investments.49 Even if they developed the right capabilities, finding
and engaging mobile U.S. ground forces would be time-consuming, and circumventing themwould be difficult if they possessed long-range missiles and were supported by air and naval
forces.
Finally, the Maritime Pressure strategy recaptures doctrinal momentum by exploiting the
weaknesses inherent in China’s centralized approach to warfare, including its need to gather
and process large volumes of information. Chinese military doctrine displays a strong belief

45

Toshi Yoshihara, “Chinese Maritime Geography,” in Thomas G. Mahnken and Dan Blumenthal, eds., Strategy in Asia:
The Past, Present, and Future of Regional Security (Stanford, CA: Stanford Security Studies, 2014), pp. 54–55; and Toshi
Yoshihara and James R. Holmes, Red Star Over the Pacific: China’s Rise and the Challenge to U.S. Maritime Strategy,
2nd ed. (Annapolis, MD: U.S. Naval Institute Press, 2018), chapter 3.

46

Eric Heginbotham and Richard J. Samuels, “Active Denial: Redesigning Japan’s Response to China’s Military Challenge,”
International Security 42, no. 4, Spring 2018, p. 168.

47

Terrence K. Kelly et al., Employing Land-Based Anti-Ship Missiles in the Western Pacific (Santa Monica, CA: RAND
Corporation, 2013), p. 8; and Heginbotham and Heim, “Deterring without Dominance,” p. 195.

48

Kelly, Gompert, and Long, Smarter Power, Stronger Partners, p. 219.

49

Michael Beckley, “The Emerging Military Balance in East Asia: How China’s Neighbors Can Check Chinese Naval
Expansion,” International Security 42, no. 2, Fall 2017, p. 81.

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that strategy is a science rather than an art. It maintains great confidence about predicting
conflict outcomes.50 Since deterrence succeeds or fails inside leaders’ minds, Maritime
Pressure targets beliefs held by Chinese leaders. Specifically, it aims to thwart Chinese sea
control, air superiority, and information dominance, conditions viewed by Chinese leaders as
essential to military victory.51 Maritime Pressure reduces the Chinese leadership’s confidence
in its ability to control the course and outcome of a future conflict, thus bolstering deterrence.
The strategy denies the PLA leadership the type of war it has planned for decades, forcing it
either to double-down on investing in anti-access capabilities or seek another approach, suchas circumventing ground-based U.S. forces and weapons, which would take more time, require
longer-range platforms, and result in losses along the way. Either way, changing the PLA’s
doctrine will cost China money and time.

What the Force Might Need to Do: Future Requirements
Developing a Maritime Pressure strategy requires being specific about the Chinese aggressionthat the United States seeks to deter and defeat. Considering various scenarios is one way to
inject greater specificity into the planning process.

The Geographic Setting: The Western Pacific
American and allied analysts have imagined conflict with China in the Western Pacific occurring over Taiwan, in the South China Sea (SCS), or in the East China Sea (ECS).52 Although
one hopes such an event never transpires, and China might not seek a conventional conflict
anytime soon, considering it can illustrate the potential requirements for U.S. and allied military forces.
Taiwan: The United States could get drawn into a war if China attacked Taiwan andAmerican leaders enforced their longstanding and public warning that China not attempt tochange the status quo through military force.53 The Chinese government’s 70-year-old political conflict with Taiwan continues to risk sparking a major conflagration. While experts today
disagree about China’s global ambitions, virtually all agree that China has one unwavering

50

Thomas G. Mahnken, Secrecy and Strategem: Understanding Chinese Strategic Culture (Sydney: Lowy Institute, 2011).

51

James C. Mulvenon et al., Chinese Responses to U.S. Military Transformation and Implications for the Department of
Defense (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2006).

52

If China launched multiple assaults simultaneously, say by staging an intra-theater feint to divert attention from its main
objective, then conflict could unfold in multiple places. Future conflicts between the United States and China might also
occur over North Korea or beyond the Western Pacific, particularly as Chinese interests and the PLA’s ability to protect
them through power projection grow. In such cases, the PLAN would still need to sortie from bases on China’s coast
through the First Island Chain. The PLA would also have to defend the Chinese homeland from attack as it conducteddistant military operations. Understanding conflict scenarios in the First Island Chain is therefore essential whether war
occurs there or further afield.

53

Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, “U.S. Relations With Taiwan,” U.S. Department of State Bilateral Relations Fact
Sheet, August 31, 2018, available at https://www.state.gov/u-s-relations-with-taiwan/.

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goal with respect to Taiwan: to reestablish political control over the island.54 Much of Chinese
operational planning concerns Taiwan, which Chinese doctrine designates the “Main Strategic
Direction.”55 China has developed military capabilities to persuade Taipei that it will suffer
enormously if it bucks Beijing and convince the United States that aiding Taiwan would becostly and ultimately futile.56 Since Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s election in 2016, China
has increased pressure on Taiwan in various ways, including by dispatching military aircraft
and ships alarmingly close to Taiwan.57 The PLA has also improved its ability to conduct thecomplex joint operations required to attack Taiwan.58 Although some analysts have claimed
that Taiwan can defeat a Chinese attack without U.S. assistance, that conclusion rests on
overly optimistic assumptions about Taiwanese military capabilities.59 In short, Taiwan
remains vulnerable to a Chinese attack, the cross-strait balance of military power is trending
in China’s favor, and the United States would likely have to intervene militarily to stave off a
Taiwanese defeat.60
South China Sea: China’s ongoing militarization of the South China Sea could trigger a
conflict involving American forces. Since late 2013, China has reclaimed lands and constructedbases at sites it occupies in the Spratly and Paracel Islands. Some sites feature runways, hardened aircraft hangars, electronic jamming equipment, and anti-ship and air defense missiles.61
This infrastructure could support future Chinese offensive military operations. For example,
the PLA might use it to anchor the assault and seizure of another contested feature that it
does not occupy. The operation would signal military strength to the Chinese public, potentially distracting from domestic problems during an economic downturn or political scandal.
China seizing any contested feature would trigger crisis, escalation, or potential war with othernations making territorial claims. Those nations would face intense political pressure at home
not to accept China’s fait accompli. Besides attacking deliberately, Chinese militarization in
the South China Sea risks inadvertent conflict since moving military and civilian assets around54

Hunzeker and Lanoszka, A Question of Time, pp. 35–41.

55

Academy of Military Sciences Strategic Research Department, Science of Military Strategy (Beijing: Academy of Military
Sciences, 2013), pp. 198–199; and Liu Haijiang and Li Zhiyuan, eds., Research on Joint Tactical Thought (Beijing:
Lantian Press, 2012), p. 156.

56

Oriana Skylar Mastro and Ian Easton, Risk and Resiliency: China’s Emerging Air Base Strike Threat (Washington, DC:
Project 2049 Institute, 2017); and Ian Easton, The Chinese Invasion Threat: Taiwan’s Defense and American Strategy in
Asia (Manchester, UK: Camphor, 2017).

57

Susan V. Lawrence, Taiwan: Select Political and Security Issues (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service,
October 2018), p. 2.

58

Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China
2018, annual report to Congress (Washington, DC: DoD, August 2018), pp. 96–97.

59

Travis Sharp and John Speed Meyers, “Correspondence: Will East Asia Balance Beijing?” International Security 43, no. 3,
Winter 2018/2019, pp. 194–196.

60

Scott L. Kastner, “Is the Taiwan Strait Still a Flash Point? Rethinking the Prospects for Armed Conflict between China andTaiwan,” International Security 40, no. 3, Winter 2015/2016, pp. 69–74.

61

Ronald O’Rourke, China’s Actions in South and East China Seas: Implications for U.S. Interests (Washington, DC:
Congressional Research Service, August 2018), pp. 13–15.

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the islands could precipitate confrontations, whether planned or unplanned, between Chineseand other nations’ forces, including U.S. ships conducting freedom of navigation operations.
East China Sea: China’s continued belligerence in its East China Sea territorial disputes
with Japan could devolve into a war involving the United States given America’s unwaveringcommitment to its mutual defense treaty with Japan. Since 2012, Chinese Coast Guard andMaritime Militia vessels have intruded continuously into waters near the Senkaku Islands
controlled by Japan. China has flown combat aircraft through Japanese airspace near the
Senkakus and other islands, forcing Japan to scramble fighters to intercept them.62 With military forces shadowing one another in close proximity, one mistake by a ship captain or pilot
could propel the nations into a militarized crisis. In the future, China could direct its militia
or military forces to harass Japan in a predatory move to spur Japanese overreaction. Or the
PLA could seize territory within the Senkakus, perhaps to demonstrate resolve during an escalating feud with Japan or the United States. Worse still would be a Chinese invasion of Japan’sSouthwest Islands, a contingency that deeply worries Japan today. If the Chinese attack
succeeded quickly, changing the status quo, Japanese and American leaders might face thedifficult choice of having to escalate to restore the status quo ante.

Four Potential Chinese Operations
Understanding how the PLA plans for future wars should occupy a central role in any strategy
that seeks to deter the Chinese leadership. The PLA has developed a coherent body of thought
describing the joint operations that it envisions conducting, either independently or during abroader campaign. Four such operations stand out:•

Joint Firepower Strike Operations featuring air and missile strikes (strike campaign);•

Joint Blockade Operations featuring electronic and cyber attacks, missile and air strikes,
naval surface and subsurface raids, and offensive mine warfare (blockade);•

Joint Attack Operations featuring amphibious and airborne assaults (amphibious
assault); and•Joint Anti-Air Raid Operations featuring attacks on American forces deployed in theWestern Pacific to protect the regime in Beijing (anti-air raid operations).63

These joint operations could unfold in a Taiwan, SCS, or ECS setting. The operations wouldfeature different configurations of Chinese attackers, which in turn would require different
responses by U.S. and allied defenders. The operations also would likely blur together. For
example, a strike campaign would presumably precede an amphibious assault, and both62

Edmund J. Burke et al., China’s Military Activities in the East China Sea: Implications for Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force(Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2018), pp. 9–15.

63

Ian Easton, “China’s Top 5 War Plans,” National Interest, January 12, 2019, available at https://nationalinterest.org/
blog/buzz/chinas-top-5-war-plans-41332.

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a strike campaign and an amphibious assault might include a blockade and anti-air raid
operations.
Strike campaign: One stressing scenario would involve the PLA launching a strike campaign
to coerce an opponent to capitulate to China’s political demands. Under this scenario, China
would likely not attempt to seize territory or land troops, but instead use missiles and otherweapons to inflict punishment from afar. A Chinese strike campaign against Taiwan or a
SCS/ECS site would incorporate several elements. After seeking to gain information dominance, China would commence strikes using air, missile, undersea, electronic, cyber, or otherassets. Offensively, the PLA would prey upon critical nodes to degrade its opponent’s fighting
ability. Those nodes include air bases, surface-to-air missile (SAM) radar sites, satellite groundstations, and fuel storage and delivery infrastructure. Defensively, the PLA would brandish its
arsenal of land-, ship-, and aircraft-launched missiles to threaten U.S. and allied naval and airforces with destruction if they ventured close enough to release their weapons, as discussed in
the anti-air raid operations subsection below.
The PLA possesses an imposing inventory of strike forces. Given its current air bases andaircraft ranges, it could muster approximately 1,000 fighter, strike, and bomber aircraft in a
Taiwan scenario and about 500 in a Spratly Islands scenario.64 These numbers could increaseby shifting forces from more distant theater commands to the conflict area. The fleets would
include the Shenyang J-16 strike fighter, an aircraft comparable to the U.S. F-15 and equippedwith a multimode active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar ideal for tracking many
enemy targets at long ranges.65 China’s missile arsenal includes 750–1,500 ground-launchedshort-range ballistic missiles capable of hitting targets along the First Island Chain; 270–540
ground- and air-launched land-attack cruise missiles for standoff precision strikes against
critical nodes; and large quantities of modern anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs) deliverable via aircraft, submarines, and surface ships.66 According to RAND, in 2017 China had
28 destroyers, 47 frigates, and 41 submarines capable of launching ASCMs.67 China also has
explored installing ASCM launchers in shipping containers located in merchant ships orcivilian ports, disguising them for surprise attacks.68

64

Eric Heginbotham et al., The U.S.-China Military Scorecard: Forces, Geography, and the Evolving Balance of Power
1996–2017 (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2015), pp. 75–77, 88–89.

65

Jeffrey Lin and P.W. Singer, “Chinese Air Force Takes Delivery of New J-16 Strike Fighters,”
Popular Science, May 7, 2014, available at https://www.popsci.com/blog-network/eastern-arsenal/chinese-air-force-takes-delivery-new-j-16-strike-fighters.

66

OSD, Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2019, annual report to Congress(Washington, DC: DoD, May 2019), pp. 47, 117.

67

Heginbotham et al., The U.S.-China Military Scorecard, pp. 177–181.

68

Bill Gertz, “China Building Long-Range Cruise Missile Launched from Ship Container,”
Free Beacon, March 27, 2019, available at https://freebeacon.com/national-security/
china-building-long-range-cruise-missile-launched-from-ship-container/.

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A strike campaign would present the United States and its allies with difficult political choices.
If leaders received indications and warning that China was poised to attack, they would
have to decide whether to launch preemptive strikes to stifle the onslaught, a move thatmight elicit public condemnation for drawing first blood (especially if China lied afterward
about preparing to attack, or if preparations to attack were a feint). If the strike campaign
commenced without preemption, U.S. and allied leaders would then have to decide whether
to counterattack narrowly against China’s front-line strike forces or broadly against rear-areatargets enabling those forces, including targets in China’s interior. The question is straightforward militarily since destroying enabling infrastructure, “the hub of all power and movement,”
is almost always preferable.69 In this case, however, targeting rear areas risks escalation under
the shadow of nuclear war; the Chinese regime might perceive attacking its territory as anexistential threat.70 All in all, a Chinese strike campaign would present U.S. and allied leaderswith choices ranging from bad to worse.
Blockade: Another potential PLA operation involves a blockade campaign featuring maritime interdiction operations, kinetic and non-kinetic strikes, shows of force, raids, and mining
operations to strangle an enemy like Taiwan into submission. The blockade would punish
the victim into capitulation by severing connections to the outside world. While a blockade
might transpire during a strike campaign, amphibious assault, or anti-air raid operation, it
might also occur on its own at varying levels of intensity. Whereas a high-intensity blockadefeaturing kinetic strikes would threaten to escalate quickly, a low-intensity blockade featuring
demonstrations of force might last days, weeks, or even months, defying expectations of ashort conflict.71 A drawn-out, slow-burning confrontation might require greater resources
than American and allied strategists assume, including the political courage to rally allies andpreserve unity during a protracted coercive campaign.
A low-intensity Chinese blockade would depend heavily on maritime situational awarenessand surface ship operations interfering with merchant shipping. A high-intensity blockade,essentially the modern equivalent of unrestricted submarine warfare, would depend heavily
on submarines and sea mines, with surface ships, aircraft, and land-based missiles playing
supporting roles.72 A high-intensity blockade of Taiwan illustrates the case. The PLAN would
concentrate its submarine fleet on denying merchant ships access to Taiwan’s ports, a grave
threat to an island nation that imports much of its crude oil and food. If the PLAN dedicated all its submarines to the task, leaving itself vulnerable elsewhere, it could muster over69

Carl von Clausewitz, with Michael Howard and Peter Paret, trans. and eds., On War (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press, 1989), p. 595.

70

Caitlin Talmadge, “Would China Go Nuclear? Assessing the Risk of Chinese Nuclear Escalation in a Conventional War
with the United States,” International Security 41, no. 4, Spring 2017, pp. 50–92.

71

T.X. Hammes, Offshore Control: A Proposed Strategy for an Unlikely Conflict (Washington, DC: Institute for National
Strategic Studies, National Defense University, 2012), pp. 3–4.

72

Michael A. Glosny, “Strangulation from the Sea? A PRC Submarine Blockade of Taiwan,” International Security 28, no. 4,
Spring 2004, pp. 125–160.

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CSBA | TIGHTENING THE CHAIN

50 boats in the area of operations, including the diesel-electric, cruise missile-carrying Yuan
and the quieted, nuclear-powered Shang. Besides directly interdicting merchant ships andnaval vessels, PLAN submarines could seed the waters near Taiwan with naval mines. China
today possess over 50,000 mines, including both older contact and influence mines and newer
rocket-propelled and intelligent mines.73 Together, Chinese submarines and mines could erecta formidable barrier for U.S. and allied militaries to fight through to rescue Taiwan.
Amphibious assault: An even more stressing scenario would involve the Chinese military launching a surprise attack to seize a territorial objective before the United States andits allies had time to respond, thus presenting them with a fait accompli. A Chinese amphibious assault against Taiwan, for example, would likely unfold in several stages. First the PLA
would try to achieve information dominance through surprise, a key tenet of its doctrine.74 It
might conduct a military exercise or weapons test to disguise the massing of men and materiel. It might also use non-military coercive tools, known as “gray zone” activities, to misdirect
the United States and its allies.75 The next stage would involve Chinese strike and anti-air raid
operations. The PLA would seek to establish air superiority and sea control by disarming U.S.
and allied forces opposing the amphibious landing. Timing would prove essential for success.
The final stage would involve the PLA landing troops on the objective and reinforcing it
rapidly to withstand a counterattack by U.S. and allied forces.
Based on its current inventory of amphibious landing ships, the PLA could land approximately
20,000 troops during an initial assault wave against Taiwan, assuming it suffered 25 percent
attrition along the way in accordance with plausible loss rates (which it could reinforce rapidly
in subsequent waves).76 Nonetheless, the Taiwan scenario would prove extremely challenging
for the PLA due to terrain, opposition, and a lack of PLAN lift capacity. Seizing a SCS/ECS sitewould require fewer troops, given the smaller landmasses, but more time to get them there,
given the longer transit distances. The PLA could reduce transit time by deploying troopferrying ships near the objective in advance, perhaps using an exercise as a ruse. Reversing the
PLA’s gains would require dislodging it from its newly seized position, a daunting task politically. If the PLA seized a SCS/ECS site, for example, the United States and its allies would
have to contemplate retaliating against Chinese forces that, in some people’s eyes, had done
nothing besides occupy useless rocks owned by no one.
Anti-air raid operations: In several of the scenarios above, the PLA would likely conductanti-air raid operations to prevent U.S. military intervention and protect the regime in Beijing.

73

Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), The PLA Navy: New Capabilities and Missions for the 21st Century (Washington, DC:
ONI, April 2015), pp. 20–21.

74

Mulvenon et al., Chinese Responses to U.S. Military Transformation, pp. 49–53.

75

Mahnken, Babbage, and Yoshihara, Countering Comprehensive Coercion, pp. 35–40.

76

Heginbotham et al., The U.S.-China Military Scorecard, p. 203; and Beckley, “The Emerging Military Balance in East
Asia,” pp. 87–90. Losses may be higher, depending on what ships are lost in transit. Additional losses would also be
incurred ashore.

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Rather than pursuing coercion or territory, anti-air raid operations would focus on neutralizing U.S. and allied forces in the Western Pacific to thwart retaliation against Chinese militaryand political targets. The Chinese view anti-air raid operations as “defensive” in nature eventhough they would likely occur during a Chinese offensive campaign, thus “underscoring theambiguity of offense and defense in PLA theory,” as DoD has noted.77 Anti-air raid operations
would involve fielding integrated air defense networks to cover the mainland, attacking enemy
air bases and aircraft carriers, and expanding China’s air defenses beyond its borders with air
defense systems on ships and artificial islands.78
The Chinese capabilities required for anti-air raid operations would resemble those needed
for a strike campaign. If the Chinese leadership wanted to increase pain on its adversaries
gradually rather than crippling their defenses immediately, it could strike front-line operating
forces, such as single ships or aircraft, perhaps using stealthy platforms such as submarinesthat might disguise culpability, at least initially. Even the most powerful U.S. military capabilities might not be able to stop Chinese anti-air raid operations. Though U.S. and allied
submarines could slip undetected into China’s A2/AD bubble to harry PLA strike forces,
launching too many strikes in quick succession might expose their positions. Similarly, while
U.S. stealthy long-range bombers could penetrate Chinese A2/AD defenses to strike enabling
and front-line forces, their time on target would be constrained by long flight times fromdistant bases. This time-to-target constraint has obvious implications, particularly during the
crucial opening hours of a Chinese blitz to inflict punishment or seize territory. Chinese antiair raid operations therefore present a thorny operational problem that no single American
weapons system can solve by itself.

Four Operational Challenges
In defending against these Chinese operations, U.S. and allied military forces would face four
key operational challenges:•

Rapidly blunting Chinese aggression at the outset of conflict;•

Rapidly projecting power to reinforce forward forces within A2/AD environments;•

Protecting and sustaining forces and critical bases of operations; and•Gaining and maintaining information advantage while under attack.79

Although challenges surely exist beyond these four, they provide a reasonable summation of
the key problems absorbing American and allied planners.

77

OSD, Military Power of the People’s Republic of China 2009, annual report to Congress (Washington, DC: DoD, March2009), p. 13.

78

Cortez A. Cooper, testimony before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review, January 27, 2011, p. 4.

79

NDS Commission, Providing for the Common Defense, p. 15.

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CSBA | TIGHTENING THE CHAIN

Rapidly blunting Chinese aggression at the outset of conflict: U.S. and allied military forces must respond in force quickly to thwart a Chinese fait accompli attempt. In the
direst scenario involving an invasion of Taiwan, the response would need to begin within a
few hours. U.S. and allied forces will not have weeks or months to concentrate in mass near
the theater of operations and then counterattack before China seizes a territorial objective or
attrites its opponent’s forces. Nor will friendly forces necessarily have time to fight their way todecisive points in the battlespace if they begin the conflict outside China’s A2/AD bubble. U.S.
and allied forces must inflict losses on attacking Chinese forces from the conflict’s outset. Even
if they only slow a Chinese advance, they will buy time for reinforcements to arrive, compel
China to expend resources, and complicate the PLA’s planning. Reacting rapidly requires,among other things, defending and hardening friendly forces and bases so they can absorb a
Chinese first strike and retaliate afterwards.
Rapidly projecting power to reinforce forward forces within A2/AD environments: Although forward forces could help slow Chinese attacks and buy time, they would
still need rapid reinforcement by forces deploying from the continental United States(CONUS) or other theaters. U.S. and allied military forces must fight through a large quantity of Chinese missiles, ships, and aircraft to halt and ultimately defeat attempted aggression
by the PLA. For various strategic reasons, including its assessment of American capabilities,
the PLA has dispersed its offensive striking power across many forces, greatly complicating
U.S. and allied reinforcement operations.80 U.S. reinforcements would not only need to deploy
rapidly, but also do so while under kinetic and non-kinetic attack by Chinese anti-access capabilities. For example, Chinese cyber attacks could disrupt U.S. deployment networks while
Chinese anti-ship and land-attack missiles could interdict forces while at sea, aerial and sea
ports of debarkation, or staging areas.
Protecting and sustaining forces and critical bases of operations: Once in theater,
both forward forces and reinforcements would face sustained attack by Chinese area denial
capabilities. In particular, U.S. bases in the Western Pacific would be highly vulnerable tomassed attacks by Chinese missiles. U.S. forces are concentrated at a handful of locations
such as Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan—the U.S. air base closest to the Taiwan Strait.
Concentrating U.S. forces in relatively few places has resulted from several factors, including
the Western Pacific’s vast archipelagic geography, the historical evolution of U.S. military
relations with its allies, and the post-Cold War U.S. emphasis on optimizing efficiency at theexpense of resilience.81 In a conflict, China could mass large quantities of missile fires against
the handful of large friendly bases. By attacking only a few bases, the PLA could decrement
a significant proportion of U.S. and allied striking power. Given these prospective gains,
China has an incentive to attack first against friendly forces and bases, a fact that undermines

80

Thomas G. Mahnken, “China’s Anti-Access Strategy in Historical and Theoretical Perspective,” Journal of Strategic
Studies 34, no. 3, June 2011, pp. 299–323.

81

Carnes Lord and Andrew S. Erickson, eds., Rebalancing U.S. Forces: Basing and Forward Presence in the Asia-Pacific(Annapolis, MD: U.S. Naval Institute Press, 2014).

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stability in the Western Pacific. Hardening and geographically dispersing forces could help
mitigate the threat from Chinese area-denial systems. However, geographically distributed
operations would create significant challenges for a U.S. logistics system designed to maximize efficiency while functioning in permissive environments. As such, distributed operations
would require, at a minimum, new sustainment concepts and significant changes to sustainment capabilities and force structure.
Gaining and maintaining information advantage while under attack: The battle
for information advantage will be critical in a future conflict with China and could ultimately
prove decisive. Even before a conflict begins, Chinese preparatory actions below the thresholdof armed conflict, supported by deception operations, could mask Chinese intentions and blurthe line between conflict and peace, thereby providing China with a potentially decisive firstmover advantage. Once a conflict begins, the large inventory of Chinese front-line strike forces
would place enormous stress on U.S. and allied forces’ targeting cycles, the labor- and technology-intensive processes of identifying, prioritizing, prosecuting, and assessing the damage
inflicted on Chinese targets. China’s robust counter-C4ISR capabilities would further exacerbate this targeting challenge by degrading U.S. and allied situational awareness, hinderingboth coordination and command and control. At the same time, China increasingly possesses
its own sophisticated, albeit highly centralized, C4ISR architecture. This C4ISR architecture
greatly enhances the PLA’s ability to target U.S. and allied forces throughout the battlespace,particularly if not degraded by U.S. and allied counter-C4ISR capabilities.

Conclusion
The United States must discourage the Chinese leadership from believing it can initiate alocal conflict in the Western Pacific and prevail quickly on favorable terms. Unfortunately,
the current U.S. military posture of concentrating forces at a handful of bases may tempt the
PLA to strike quickly during a crisis, cutting off American access to its allies and partners. A
new U.S. force posture that places distributed, resilient, forward-stationed strike forces on thetactical defensive along the First Island Chain would stabilize the situation. Employed properly, it would promote mutual deterrence and incentivize all parties to manage their disputes
peacefully. The next chapter proposes such a posture by introducing the Inside-Out Defense
concept.

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CHAPTER 3

Concepts, Capabilities, andCoordination for a Strategy of
Maritime Pressure
Given the strategic and operational challenges confronting the United States in the Western
Pacific, implementing a strategy of Maritime Pressure will require a new operational
approach. This chapter first describes a new operational concept, Inside-Out Defense, whichseeks to overcome the tyranny of distance and time, frustrate China’s counter-intervention
strategy, and rapidly blunt Chinese aggression to prevent a fait accompli. It next assesses
how well the U.S. military’s current concepts, capabilities, and coordination meet the needsof Inside-Out Defense. It then offers recommendations to close some of these gaps. Finally, it
explores potential Chinese responses to a Maritime Pressure strategy.

Solving the Problems: Inside-Out as a Point of Departure Operational
Concept
To support a strategy of Maritime Pressure, CSBA offers a new operational concept,
Inside-Out Defense, as a point of departure to stimulate further discussion and debate. The
concept anchors the report’s subsequent assessment of current activities and key recommendations. It addresses the problems of time and distance that the U.S. military faces in theWestern Pacific. At risk of oversimplification, the concept does to China what China has doneto the United States and its allies; namely, it exploits the Western Pacific’s geography to createan A2/AD architecture capable of degrading, delaying, and denying an adversary’s power
projection forces.

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CSBA | TIGHTENING THE CHAIN

Central Idea of Inside-Out Defense
Inside-Out Defense combines lethal and resilient “inside” forces able to fight and persist
within highly contested environments with agile, long-range “outside” forces capable offighting from standoff distances or penetrating A2/AD networks.82 Together, these insideand outside forces could create a responsive, yet survivable, forward defense-in-depth in theWestern Pacific capable of rapidly blunting Chinese aggression at the outset of a conflict.
Although Inside-Out Defense might prove insufficient on its own to enable the United States
to prevail in a conflict with China, by staving off a fait accompli, it would buy the time necessary for other operations, such as follow-on punitive strikes or a distant blockade, to produce
their intended effects. It would also help restore a more favorable escalation dynamic between
China and the United States. By presenting a more formidable defensive posture, Inside-Out
Defense would, in a crisis, make China choose between risking a large-scale and costly conflictor seeking an off-ramp to diffuse tensions.

Inside and Outside Forces
Inside-Out Defense involves two mutually supporting components: inside forces and outside
forces.
Inside forces: During peacetime, inside forces forward postured in the Western Pacificwould provide a combat credible signal of U.S. commitment and resolve, which should give
Chinese leaders pause by complicating their decision calculus and undermining their confidence in their military plans. These inside forces could also help challenge Chinese coercive
actions below the level of armed conflict. Inside forces employing a network of persistent air,maritime, and ground sensors could enhance situational awareness in the Western Pacific andhelp expose Chinese malign activities. Moreover, a persistent sensor network deployed in theWestern Pacific could also improve indications and warning of potential Chinese aggression,
thereby reducing China’s time-distance advantage.
In the event of conflict, inside forces would exploit the region’s maritime geography by rapidly
assuming a dispersed, resilient posture along and within the First Island Chain to form an
initial defensive barrier that could immediately challenge Chinese military operations. These
inside forces would serve three primary roles in a Western Pacific contingency. First, theywould contest what Chinese doctrine has identified as necessary prerequisites for conducting
a successful military campaign: air superiority, sea control, and information dominance.83
Second, inside forces would attack Chinese power projection forces to delay and deny theirability to achieve objectives through aggression, such as seizing the territory of U.S. allies orpartners, while blocking China from projecting power beyond the First Island Chain. Third,

82

Corbett, “Stand-In Forces.”

83

Mulvenon et al., Chinese Responses to U.S. Military Transformation.

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they would degrade key Chinese systems to create gaps in China’s A2/AD networks thatoutside forces could then exploit.
Mobile and dispersed ground forces—and amphibious forces ashore—would form the backbone of these inside forces. Leveraging the inherent survivability of mobile, hard-to-findground forces augmented with counter-detection aids, such as camouflage, concealment, anddeception (CCD), the inside forces would transform the First Island Chain’s archipelagos into
defensive bastions bristling with multi-domain capabilities such as sensors, missiles, and electronic warfare systems.
As an illustrative example, a notional multi-domain ground unit could be organized as follows(letters correspond to the icons displayed in Figure 3):a) Headquarters and headquarters company (HHC) including organic signal, engineer, and medical
platoons;b) Rocket artillery battery equipped with M142 high-mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS) or a
new multi-mission launcher capable of firing a family of land-attack and anti-ship missiles;c) Composite air defense battery equipped with a mix of long- and short-range surface-to-air
missiles, guns, and directed energy systems to provide wide-area air denial and point defense;d) Military intelligence/ISR company with organic aerial and ground sensors;e) Electronic warfare company with both electronic attack and defensive capabilities;

Figure 3: Notional Multi-Domaing) Forward
support company
GroundUnit capable of sustaining distributed forces in an austere environment.
f) Motorized infantry company to provide security for dispersed forces; andFIGURE 3: NOTIONAL MULTI-DOMAIN GROUND UNIT
II

a

b

c

I
HH
C

I

I

e

f

I

I

I

ISR

EW

d

g
I
FSC

During a conflict, multi-domain ground units could task-organize into smaller multi-domain
elements and assume a distributed disposition over a sizeable deployment area to complicate Chinese targeting and improve survivability. Sub-surface platforms, both manned andunmanned, could operate within or near the ECS and SCS to augment these island bastions aspart of the inside forces.
Given their role in peacetime competition and deterrence, including the need to blunt Chinese
aggression at the start of a conflict, the core of inside forces would likely consist of units
forward postured in the Western Pacific such as III Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF).
During a crisis, this initial core could be augmented by rapidly deploying forces, which would
leverage stocks of pre-positioned equipment in the First Island Chain. Given the likely difficulty of resupplying inside forces, particularly early in a conflict, they would need sufficient

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CSBA | TIGHTENING THE CHAIN

stocks of munitions and sustainment material to fight without resupply for an extended periodof time. As a crisis or conflict progressed, additional forces surging from CONUS and othertheaters, together with the outside forces, would reinforce the inside forces, particularly as
Chinese A2/AD capabilities became degraded.
Outside forces: Primarily consisting of air and naval surface forces, outside forces would
provide a flexible and agile element to support the inside forces arrayed along the First Island
Chain. The overwhelming mass of U.S. combat power would reside in these outside forces.84
During peacetime, outside forces could augment inside forces with additional presence in theWestern Pacific. In the event of conflict, they would back up the defensive barrier establishedby the inside forces along the First Island Chain and provide defense-in-depth in the Second
Island Chain. If necessary, outside forces could surge forward to plug any gaps in the defensive barrier of inside forces created either by lack of U.S. access to allied or partner territoryor through attrition from Chinese attacks. Inside forces would likely canalize PLA operations,causing them to unfold in predictable directions. That outcome would create vulnerabilities
that outside forces would exploit for counter-offensive operations.
These outside forces, employing standoff or penetrating capabilities, could exploit gaps in
the Chinese A2/AD complex created by the inside forces. They could exploit these gaps toaugment defensive operations with additional mass and conduct offensive operations such as
strikes against targets on the Chinese mainland. Finally, outside forces could leverage theirgreater freedom of maneuver to conduct other priority missions, such as holding Chinese
overseas assets at risk or interdicting Chinese maritime commerce.
Although the outside forces would primarily base and operate in a less lethal environment
than the inside forces, they would still be within range of China’s longer-range precision strikesystems. Thus, they would need to adopt a resilient and distributed posture. As the conflict
progressed and Chinese A2/AD capabilities suffered degradation, certain elements of theoutside forces—such as small manned and unmanned surface combatants using the terrain of
the First Island Chain to help mask their signatures while sheltered by mobile air defenses on
the islands—could move forward and operate as part of the inside forces.
Together, inside and outside forces should allow the U.S. military, in conjunction withallies and partners, to create the virtues of mass without the vulnerabilities of concentration.85 That is, arraying forces across the geographic breadth and depth of the battle space ina way that balances lethality and survivability, and knitting them together into an effective
battle network, would enable U.S. forces to build combat power within the First Island Chain
without having to physically concentrate themselves on large, close-in bases that are highly
vulnerable to China’s precision-strike regime.

84

Bryan Clark and Jordan Wilson, “Strategic Competition Between the United States and China in the Maritime Realm,”in Tai Ming Cheung and Thomas G. Mahnken, eds., The Gathering Pacific Storm: Emerging U.S.-China Strategic
Competition in Defense Technological and Industrial Development (Amherst, NY: Cambria Press, 2018), chapter 6.

85

Eckstein, “Marine Aviation, Weapons.”

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Lines of Operation
Inside-Out Defense would consist of four main lines of operation:•

Sea-denial operations in the First Island Chain to contest Chinese sea control and defeat
Chinese maritime power projection forces;•

Air-denial operations in the First Island Chain to contest Chinese air superiority anddefeat Chinese aerospace power projection forces;•

Information denial operations to contest Chinese information dominance and enable
U.S. information advantage; and•Land-attack operations to degrade Chinese land-based A2/AD systems and attrite
Chinese power projection forces that make it ashore onto allied or partner territory.

Three supporting lines of operation would enable these efforts:•

Preserving C4ISR architectures in highly contested and degraded environments to enable
U.S. information advantage;•

Defending friendly forces and bases from Chinese multi-domain attacks; and•Sustaining distributed forces while under attack.

Figure 4: Inside-Out Overview

FIGURE 4: INSIDE-OUT DEFENSE OVERVIEW

Land-based air and sea denialof PLA air and naval maneuver
Submarines and StealthBombers conduct highpriority forward operations
Large surface and air forces run theline and plug the gaps, operate behind
air defenses along First Island Chain

Inside Force

Outside Force

Surge forces from
CONUS if necessary

Outside forces provide
multiple approaches of attack

UAS, USV, UUV, and L/O systems stayforward as sensors and comms relay
for mobile land-based launchers

Amphibious forces establish advance bases

4

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CSBA | TIGHTENING THE CHAIN

Sea denial: Sea-denial operations would deny China’s efforts to gain and maintain sea
control within or near the First Island Chain, defeat Chinese maritime forces before they could
land ground units on allied or partner territory, rapidly break a maritime blockade, and hinder
China from projecting maritime power beyond its near abroad. From distributed positions
along the First Island Chain, ground forces equipped with launchers capable of firing ASCMs
or anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBMs) could attack Chinese surface warships in generaland advanced PLAN surface combatants equipped with long-range SAMs in particular.
Neutralizing these ships early in a conflict would greatly inhibit Chinese efforts to establish sea
control and could create gaps in China’s outer air defenses that outside air forces could thenexploit. In addition, such forces could hold Chinese merchant shipping at risk.

Figure 5: Overlapping Coverage ofGround-based
Sea-denial
Systems
FIGURE
5: OVERLAPPING COVERAGE
OF GROUND-BASEDSEA-DENIAL SYSTEMS

185 km (NSM, Type-12)
370 km (SM-6)
499 km (PRSM, LRASM)
800 km (Notional ER ASCM, SRBM)
1,600 km (Ground-Launched Tomahawk)

5
Ranges and their proxies in parentheses serve as examples, not as specific recommendations. With additional cooperation from partner governments,
similar systems could also be placed elsewhere (e.g., Vietnam and Indonesia). NSM, Type-12, and SM-6 ranges are from IHS Jane’s. PrSM range isfrom Jen Judson, “U.S. Army to Prioritize Long-Range Missile Capability to Go After Maritime Targets,” Defense News, March 26, 2019, available athttps://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/global-force-symposium/2019/03/26/army-to-prioritize-long-range-missile-capability-to-goafter-maritime-targets/. LRASM range is from Oriana Pawlyk, “Live LRASM Test from F/A-18 Super Hornet Expected This Year,” DoDBuzz, April 10,
2018, available at https://www.military.com/dodbuzz/2018/04/10/live-lrasm-test-f-18-super-hornet-expected-year.html. Tomahawk range is from“Tomahawk Cruise Missile,” U.S. Navy factsheet, April 26, 2018, available at www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=2200&tid=1300&ct=2.

Past CSBA wargaming concluded that land-based anti-ship missiles with a range of at least
100 nautical miles (nm) (~185 km), such as the Naval Strike Missile (NSM) or Japan’s Type-12
anti-ship cruise missile, would cover most potential transit routes for Chinese ships seeking topass beyond the First Island Chain. However, this assessment assumes that U.S. forces havebroad access to allied and partner territory, including states in Southeast Asia such as Vietnam
and Indonesia. While ground-launched anti-ship missiles with a range of 100 nm/185 km orless could provide robust coastal defense of the First Island Chain and cover some disputed

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features, they lack the range to attack Chinese maritime forces operating further out in the
ECS and SCS. Equipping ground forces with a family of missiles with greater ranges (Figure5) would hedge against more restrictive access for U.S. forces, enable ground forces to attack
PLAN forces operating closer to China and in the Taiwan Strait, and provide more robust
fields of overlapping anti-ship fires.
Advanced ground-launched anti-ship missiles with sophisticated seekers could enable groundforces to selectively target high-value PLAN surface combatants and amphibious ships despite
PLAN kinetic and non-kinetic defenses. Since these land-based systems would likely lack themagazine depth to conduct attacks on all Chinese maritime targets, they could instead focus
on contesting key sea lanes, striking high-value PLAN assets, and creating uncertainty for the
PLA. Earlier CSBA studies highlighted how uncertainty can inflict virtual attrition on enemy
forces, forcing them to pursue less effective and more costly courses of action.86 To facilitate
these strikes, forces could receive targeting data through a combination of organic groundand aerial sensors, over-the-horizon radars, submarines and unmanned undersea vehicles,
satellites, manned and unmanned surface vessels, and penetrating manned and unmanned
aircraft. These systems would require a multi-domain command and control (C2) network tolink them, which does not currently exist.
Subsurface forces, including both manned and unmanned platforms, would support inside
ground forces by acting as forward sensors and conducting torpedo and ASCMs strikes
against Chinese ships. However, their primary responsibility would be defeating Chinese
undersea forces within the First Island Chain, in particular before they can exit the SCS/
ECS. As unmanned undersea capabilities continue to mature and Chinese anti-submarine
warfare (ASW) forces become more capable and proficient, U.S. forces could increasingly
conduct subsurface operations within the First Island Chain with unmanned platforms suchas unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) and smart mines, allowing manned submarines toremain in less contested waters and function more as C2 nodes and missile strike platforms.
Additionally, land-based fires can pair with unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to attack PLAN
submarines detected by unmanned sensors. These attacks would not need to be highly lethal;
they would just need to deter the submarine from exiting the SCS/ECS or compel it to evade,thereby running the risk of exposing itself to attack.
Outside forces could also contribute to sea denial within the First Island Chain by exploiting
gaps created in Chinese A2/AD capabilities by inside forces. Surface combatants, 4th generation fighters, and legacy bombers, operating behind the cover of ground-based air defenses
along the First Island Chain, could support sea denial operation with swarms of long-range
ASCMs. Manned and unmanned stealth aircraft could penetrate Chinese A2/AD bubbles to
conduct maritime strikes and act as sensing platforms for other assets such as land-based
missiles.

86

John Stillion and Bryan Clark, What It Takes to Win: Succeeding in 21st Century Battle Network Competitions(Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, 2015), pp. 17, 21.

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Air denial: Air denial operations would contest Chinese air superiority within the First Island
Chain; neutralize airborne transports carrying assault forces before they could disembark theforces; and threaten long-range strike aircraft, such as H-6 bombers, from projecting power
beyond the First Island Chain to attack friendly bases, forces, and other targets.
Given the long operating distances from airbases primarily located in the Second Island Chain
and beyond, U.S. and coalition forces would not be able to generate sufficient sorties to contest
air superiority continuously in the conflict area or maintain a defensive counter-air perimeter along the First Island Chain. An improved land-based integrated air and missile defense(IAMD) architecture positioned along the archipelagoes of the First Island Chain could help
pick up the slack. It would impose costs and reduce the number of enemy aircraft able to carrystrike weapons, forcing the PLA to devote larger portions of its air effort to suppression ofenemy air defense rather than strike sorties.
This new land-based IAMD architecture would consist of a layered defense of mobile, longrange, wide-area, and short-range point air defense systems employing a mix of missiles,
guns, and directed energy capabilities such as lasers and high-power microwaves. To increase
the range of these defenses over existing systems like Patriot, longer-range weapons such as
the SM-6 could be adapted for ground launch—or other new weapons could be developed.
However, in order to improve their survivability, the architecture cannot be too fixed, since itwould be easier to find and target. The systems would be mobile, operate from austere bases,
and possess organic counter-detection aids such as CCD.
These land-based inside forces would be supported by outside air forces. First, airborne
warning and control aircraft and ISR platforms partially sheltered behind land-based integrated air defense systems on the First Island Chain could enhance battlespace awareness.
Second, fighter aircraft could both plug limited gaps in the air defense perimeter and provide
defense-in-depth beyond the First Island Chain. Third, penetrating manned and unmanned
fighters could conduct periodic offensive counter-air (OCA) sweeps within the First Island
Chain to contest Chinese air operations and conduct OCA strikes on PLAAF bases.
Information denial: The PLA views information dominance as the most critical condition necessary for military victory. As such, counter-C4ISR and information denial operations
could have outsized effects in deterring and, if necessary, defeating Chinese aggression.
Information denial operations would focus on complicating Chinese ISR, disrupting Chinese
communications networks, and ultimately paralyzing China’s centralized decision making.
Both inside and outside forces could employ a variety of land-attack, anti-ship, and antiair weapons to strike Chinese sensors and key nodes to partially blind its C4ISR networks.
Forces employing electronic warfare, counter-space, and cyber capabilities such as false emitters and jammers, augmented by passive measures such as CCD and tactical mobility, could
confuse the remaining Chinese sensors, degrade communications, and overwhelm Chinese
information processing and decision-making. As defenders, ground forces would also use thecomplicated ground environment to their advantage. Together, these actions could increase
Chinese demands for persistent targeting, deprive decision-makers of critical battlespace

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situational awareness, and inhibit their ability to make centralized decisions for their forces.
They could also drive the PLA to escalate a conflict to eliminate ground-based capabilities.
With more potential targets to engage and uncertainty about their disposition, the PLA would
have to mount a much larger initial operation. This would very clearly exceed the gray zone
activities with which Chinese leaders seem most comfortable.87

Figure 6: Measures to Improve
Resiliency
InsideForcesFIGURE
6: MEASURES TOof
IMPROVERESILIENCYOF INSIDE FORCES

Decoys with active signal generators

Multispectral camouflage

Hide in plain sightOperate launchers under
C-ISR and IAMD coverage

Place containerized launchers on
trailers equipped with prime movers

Increase number ofmunitions needed to be
fired by Red to destroy
distributed launchers

Land attack: Land attack operations would degrade Chinese land-based A2/AD systems—
including sensors, long-range missile launchers, aircraft on the ground, and SAM systems—tocreate gaps that outside forces could exploit. In the event the PLA successfully conducts anamphibious or airborne assault on disputed features within the ECS/SCS or Taiwan, a combination of systems positioned along the First Island Chain could conduct strikes to disrupt
and attrite these forces ashore. As with sea denial operations, land-based strikes could be
augmented by land-attack cruise missile strikes delivered by submarines, outside air andnaval forces conducting standoff attacks with long-range missiles, and stealth aircraft staging
attacks from closer in.

87

Bryan Clark, Mark Gunzinger, and Jesse Sloman, Winning in the Gray Zone: Using Electromagnetic Warfare to Regain
Escalation Dominance (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, 2017).

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Figure 7: Land-Based Long Range Strike

FIGURE 7: LAND-BASED LONG-RANGE STRIKE

150 nm
300 nm
450 nm
600 nm
750 nm
900 nm
1,050 nm1,200 nm
1,350 nm1,500 nm1,500 nm+

7

Past CSBA wargames used a notional target set depicting the depth and concentration of Chinese military facilities, mobile weapons systems, airbases, and other sites of military value. Approximately 70 percent of the target set’s 50,000 aimpoints are located within 250 nm of the coastline of
mainland China. The deepest aimpoints (red circles) indicate locations of known or suspected space installations, anti-satellite weapons sites, andother high-value targets.

Current and planned ground-launched land-attack munitions developed in accordance withINF Treaty range restrictions have a maximum range of 499 km. This range would be sufficient to strike some disputed and Chinese-held islands in the ECS and SCS from the First
Island Chain. However, strikes by land-based systems against all possible targets within theFirst Island Chain, as well as targets on the Chinese mainland, would require either extendedrange versions of current munitions or new munitions that would likely require new launchplatforms.
The PLA has long enjoyed an advantage over the United States and its allies in land-based
long-range precision fires, including intermediate- and medium-range conventional cruiseand ballistic missiles. If unconstrained by the INF Treaty with Russia, the United States could
seek to regain these land-based long-range strike capabilities, forcing China to devote moreresources to air and missile defenses. Although not always cost-effective for delivering large
salvos, they have considerable value in promptly striking time-sensitive targets such as aircrafton the ground, missile launchers, massed formations, capital ships in port, and critical C4ISR
nodes. Mobile systems of this sort can be placed on large islands such as Luzon, Mindanao,
Palawan, Okinawa, and Kyushu, where they can more easily hide.88

88

Jacob Cohn, Timothy A. Walton, Toshi Yoshihara, and Adam Lemon, Leveling the Playing Field: Reintroducing U.S.
Theater-Range Missiles in a Post-INF World (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, 2019).

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Preserving C4ISR: Attacking China’s C4ISR architecture alone would be insufficient togain and maintain allied information advantage in a Western Pacific contingency. The U.S.
military would also need to preserve friendly C4ISR in the face of Chinese counter-C4ISR
capabilities. A friendly C4ISR architecture that stiches together geographically disparate anddisaggregated forces into a theater-wide multi-domain battle network would support theconcept of Inside-Out Defense. This battle network would ideally enable the fusion of datafrom a variety of sensors on multiple platforms and pass information to the best available
assets for action. Scouting and targeting data for land-based launchers arrayed along the First
Island Chain could, for example, come from a variety of sensors such as 5th generation aircraft,penetrating UAS, or even space assets communicating via thin-line radio frequency low probability of intercept/low probability of detection (RF LPI/LPD) communications. The insideforce could also provide the distributed ground terminals used with new low earth orbit (LEO)
space sensor and communication programs. Overall, decoupling the sensor and shooter could
increase the range and survivability of both. This concept would enable, for example, a spaceasset or F-35 using passive sensors to detect a PLAN surface ship in the Taiwan Strait and thenpass that targeting information to ground-based missile launchers via multiple sea or elevatednodes acting as relays.89
The United States and its allies should anticipate China employing counter-C4ISR capabilities, particularly those that break the communications links among disaggregatedsensors, deciders, and shooters. The U.S. military should thus seek to improve the resiliency of its C4ISR architecture to mitigate the impact of Chinese attacks. Potential measures
could include hardening sensors and communications against jamming; creating mutually
supporting and overlapping sensing layers; improving information processing to mitigate
Chinese CCD, spoofing, and other counter-ISR efforts; and developing redundant communications pathways.
Although efforts to harden C4ISR architecture would be worthwhile, given China’s vast andsophisticated counter-C4ISR capabilities, the U.S. military likely could not prevent some
disruption to its networks. Therefore, the U.S. military must be careful not to build an overly
centralized theater battle network that must be protected from any significant degradation tofunction. Rather, the U.S. military should accept that highly contested and degraded information environments will be the norm in future warfare and develop its approaches accordingly.
The U.S. military should build a federated battle network in the Western Pacific. That is,
the U.S. military should ensure that its theater battle network consists of multiple levels ofregional and local networks, with each operating in decentralized fashion when necessary andpossessing its own sensors, deciders, and shooters. These regional and local battle networks
would continue to operate even in a highly contested environment where communications

89

U.S. passive sensors may need to get close to enemy platforms to detect them. Achieving this proximity at acceptable risk
may require penetrating UAS or expendable payloads such as missiles to carry passive sensors. Bryan Clark and Mark
Gunzinger, Winning the Airwaves: Regaining America’s Dominance in the Electromagnetic Spectrum (Washington, DC:
Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, 2017), pp. 19–27.

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links have been severely degraded or severed. Rather than doubling down on a potentiallycritical vulnerability, this approach would leverage the inherent strength of the joint force toovercome adversity. More significantly, a federated “battle network of battle networks” would
enable the U.S. military to confront China’s highly centralized system designed to operate
under the optimal conditions of information dominance with a more resilient U.S. C4ISR
system able to continue fighting despite degraded information conditions.
Defending forces and bases: China’s counter-intervention strategy emphasizes attacking
U.S. forces and bases across the Western Pacific with simultaneous long-range precision strikes. Since the United States cannot completely hide the force or perfectly defend it,
forward forces and bases must withstand the initial salvo of a Chinese attack, forcing China
to increase the salvo size needed to engage all potential targets in a short period of time.
There are four critical aspects to defending forces and bases from massed precision attacks by
Chinese missiles:•

Counter-C4ISR to disrupt and complicate Chinese targeting;•

Air and missile defense to limit the number of munitions that reach their target;•

Hardening to mitigate the impact of the munitions that strike their targets; and•Recovery to enable forces to get back into the fight after a successful attack.

Today’s sea- and shore-based air defenses typically engage incoming missiles as far away as
possible with their longest-range, most-expensive interceptors first, followed by short-range
interceptors as a last resort. Past CSBA wargaming and studies have concluded that adopting
an air defense concept focused on short-and medium-range (10–30 nm) engagements
could give defenders greater capacity for base and ship defense at less cost.90 For sea forces
employing this concept, more Vertical Launch System (VLS) magazine space can be devoted
to offensive weapons. For land-based defenses, prioritizing high-capacity point defenses,
including directed energy weapons and electromagnetic railguns, could drastically improve
defense against massed cruise missile salvos. The Chinese would need either to spend moretime to clarify the target picture or use more weapons for a faster attack.
Hardening key nodes at air facilities such as communications hubs, fuel stores, and aircraft
shelters would help improve the resiliency of U.S. forces in the face of a PLA first strike andincrease the number of Chinese munitions required to achieve effects. Recovery assets suchas rapid runway repair capabilities could better enable forces to overcome damage inflicted.
Dispersal of ground and air forces to numerous locations along the First and Second Island

90

Interceptors in these ranges, such as the Evolved SeaSparrow Missile (ESSM), are smaller and can be carried in larger
numbers. For instance, four ESSMs can fit in one VLS cell. Shorter-range line-of-sight defense systems such as directedenergy and guns have nearly unlimited magazines. For more information, see Mark Gunzinger and Bryan Clark, Winning
the Salvo Competition: Rebalancing U.S. Air and Missile Defenses (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and Budgetary
Assessments, 2016).

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Chains would minimize the loss of any large single location; properly networked, these positions would be mutually reinforcing. Distributed ground launchers such as transporter erector
launchers and trailer-mounted containerized launchers would practice passive and active
organic defense measures such as disaggregation, tactical mobility, and CCD while operating under the umbrella of air defenses to degrade enemy targeting. Decoys would need to be
deployed near real platforms, be covered by the same defenses, and be transported in the samemanner to ensure believability.
CSBA has long written about a future battlespace where “finders” will generate an unparalleled level of global transparency. The ubiquity of sensors—including advanced sensors but
also commercial imagery, an increasingly mature “Internet of Things,” and an unparalleledlevel of processing power to absorb and analyze data—will make it harder for forces to hide
and avoid being targeted. Under a Maritime Pressure strategy, U.S forces will need to recover
the atrophied skills of camouflage and deception to create an obscured cross-domain problem.
However, since the disposition of forces cannot always be concealed in an increasingly transparent battlespace, the distributed posture recommended under Inside-Out Defense would
allow U.S. and coalition forces to hide in plain sight, increasing adversary costs and demands
for persistent targeting while masking the intent for how the forces will be used.
Sustaining forces: Inside-Out Defense would require sustaining highly geographically
distributed forces operating in austere environments, all while under attack. Current U.S.
sustainment methods are focused on optimizing efficiency while operating in permissive
environments. As such, new sustainment concepts and approaches are needed for the highly
contested battlefields of the future. Ground forces arrayed along the archipelagos of the First
Island Chain could sustain themselves for some time, particularly if they leveraged pre-positioned stocks of munitions and supplies. However, they will eventually need to be resupplied.
A combination of small air and sea assets could work together to resupply and add mobility
to these small, dispersed formations. For example, in the near term, offshore support vessels
could provide logistical support. In the future, extra-large UUVs—with a payload capacity of
2,000 cubic feet—could transport roughly 8 tons of cargo to units operating near the coastline.91 Unmanned surface vessels and dracones could provide additional attritable cargotransport and refueling capabilities.92 From the air, rotary wing and tactical transport aircraft
could operate from austere island and sea bases to transport cargo and assist with moving

91“Echo Voyager: Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle,” Boeing factsheet, 2017, available at https://www.boeing.com/
resources/boeingdotcom/defense/autonomous-systems/echo-voyager/echo_voyager_product_sheet.pdf. The UnitedStates only intercepts 25 percent of the homemade submarines carrying narcotics across the Caribbean into the UnitedStates from Colombia. Logisticians should incorporate lessons gleaned from these smuggling operations into futuresustainment concepts for heavily monitored and contested environments. Joe Gould and David B. Larter, “In America’s
Opioid Crisis, Military Lets Drug Shipments Go By,” Defense News, February 15, 2018, available at https://www.
defensenews.com/congress/2018/02/16/in-americas-opioid-crisis-military-lets-drug-shipments-go-by/.

92

Dracones are large fuel or water bladders that can be towed into position. For more on sustaining maritime operations
in highly contested areas, see Timothy A. Walton, Ryan Boone, and Harrison Schramm, Sustaining the Fight: Resilient
Maritime Logistics for a New Era (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, 2019), pp. 46–47.

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troops. Seaplanes could perform a similar role, moving forces and supplies to dispersed locations along the archipelagoes.
Another challenging aspect of sustainment would involve providing tanker support for air
operations around the First Island Chain from bases in the Second Island Chain and beyond.
Conducting these operations over the vast distances in the Pacific theater is nonetheless anecessity, due to the untenable nature of large close-in air bases and the highly contested air
environment within the First Island Chain. The inside force could assist greatly by helping
create sheltered areas behind the First Island Chain in which tankers could operate. Previous
CSBA wargaming developed another potential concept for mitigating these challenges. It
called for larger manned tankers such as the KC-135 and KC-46 to shuttle fuel from moresecure airbases such as Guam and Northern Australia to smaller UAS tankers or manned
theater tankers orbiting at designated points just outside the First Island Chain. Penetrating
bombers would also take the opportunity to refuel at that point. From there the smaller
tankers would refuel combat aircraft and other ISR and battle management C2 platforms
inside the contested environment and return to the designated safe points to refuel again,
completing the cycle.93

Allied and Partner Forces
This report so far has focused on U.S. concepts and capabilities. However, the United States
never fights alone, and one of its enduring advantages vis-à-vis China is the ability to form a
coalition of allies and partners to support operations. Ideally, Maritime Pressure would be a
combined strategy that incorporates regional allies and partners to varying degrees. In thatcase, Inside-Out Defense could serve as a combined rather than just a U.S. joint operational
concept.
In a combined Inside-Out Defense concept, regional allies and partners could play three critical roles. First, they could provide basing and access in their territory to U.S. forces during
both peacetime competition and in a conflict. In fact, because the United States lacks any
territory in the First Island Chain and possesses only limited territory in the Second Island
Chain, both Maritime Pressure and Inside-Out Defense would depend on robust basing andaccess for U.S. forces in the region. Second, allied and partner forces could lead efforts tocounter Chinese coercive action below the level of armed conflict. These efforts could include
both using their territory and forces to maintain a persistent surveillance network to help
detect and expose Chinese activities and shouldering the brunt of confronting Chinese forces
conducting these actions. For example, Japan is deploying sensors to its Southwest Islands
to monitor Chinese maritime activities and has conducted vigorous operations with its coast
guard to counter the aggressive actions of China’s maritime militia in disputed waters. Third,
allies and partner military forces could augment those of the United States in a military

93

Mark Gunzinger et al., An Air Force for an Era of Great Power Competition (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic andBudgetary Assessments, 2019), pp. 113–115.

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conflict with China. In the case of frontline states located along the First Island Chain, this
could include capabilities and forces that complement the U.S. military as part of the insideforce, such as coastal defense cruise missile batteries and UAS. For highly capable allies such
as Japan and Australia, contributions could also include high-end air and naval capabilities
such as 5th generation aircraft and advanced surface combatants and submarines that could
bolster the U.S. outside forces.
Two primary challenges exist that complicate realizing this vision for a combined regional
strategy and operational approach. First, there is no equivalent of NATO for the Pacific.
America’s alliances in the Indo-Pacific are bilateral, and every ally and partner would
contribute differently to a diverse set of contingencies involving China. Moreover, since there
is no regional collective security agreement that would make the involvement of U.S. allies
and partners automatic, the United States should not take for granted military contributions
or even access. As such, the United States should not bet the success of its strategy on single
points of failure regarding access to allied or partner territory. Second, with varying generations of equipment operating on differing standards, as well as security concerns, achieving
high levels of interoperability and cohesion with all allies and partners remains difficult.
The subsection below focuses on the role that three U.S. treaty allies—Japan, the Philippines,
and Australia—could play in Inside-Out Defense. Other regional actors, including Taiwan
and U.S. partners in Southeast Asia, would also contribute to the concept, often in significant
ways. Readers interested in those actors’ roles and capabilities should refer to existing reports
analyzing the relevant issues.94
Japan: As one of the closest and most capable U.S. allies, Japan could serve as the northernanchor of a Maritime Pressure strategy. Japan is unique in the constellation of Indo-Pacificallies and partners because it is a frontline state near China and possesses a highly capable
military. As part of an Inside-Out Defense concept, the Japan Self-Defense Force could
operate alongside U.S. forces as part of both the inside and outside forces.
Japan’s most recent National Defense Program Guidelines (NPDG) represents a positive stepin enhancing Japan’s defensive posture to counter Chinese aggression.95 If properly resourced
and executed, the NDPG would greatly improve Japan’s ability to support a strategy of
Maritime Pressure. The NDPG directs the Self-Defense Force to rebalance the existing force
to make better use of its finite manpower. More specifically, the document shifts away from aheavy ground force originally designed to counter the Soviet Union to the north and instead
moves toward the aerospace and maritime threats posed by China.

94

See, for example, Jim Thomas, John Stillion, and Iskander Rehman, Hard ROC 2.0: Taiwan and Deterrence throughProtraction (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, 2014); and Evelyn Goh, “Great Powers
and Hierarchical Order in Southeast Asia: Analyzing Regional Security Strategies,” International Security 32, no. 3,
Winter 2007/2008, pp. 113–157.

95

Japan Ministry of Defense (MOD), National Defense Program Guidelines for FY 2019 and Beyond (Tokyo: Japan MOD,
December 18, 2018), available at http://www.mod.go.jp/j/approach/agenda/guideline/2019/pdf/20181218_e.pdf.

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Japan is fielding or plans to field many capabilities that would make sound contributions
to a U.S.-led strategy of Maritime Pressure.96 In addition to new ballistic missile interceptors and two Aegis Ashore installations, Japan is currently procuring advanced air-delivered
and ground-launched anti-ship cruise missiles, coastal radars, F-35As, RQ-4 Global Hawks,
Amphibious Assault Vehicles, C-2 transport aircraft, P-1 maritime patrol aircraft, KC-46A
refueling and transport aircraft, V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft, and new classes of submarines anddestroyers. There are reports that Japan is planning to procure another 5th generation strikefighter, the EA-18G Growler, hypersonic weapons, and transport ships for the Ground SelfDefense Force; it also plans to retrofit its helicopter carriers into aircraft carriers. Althoughthese capabilities would add immense credibility to a Maritime Pressure strategy, any combination of them comes with a big price tag. In addition to growing maintenance costs for thesesystems, personnel costs are also expected to grow. As a result, Japan may want to explore
lower-cost options in several areas, such as persistent ISR that can help address targeting
challenges currently facing its systems. Japan’s capabilities and contributions to a strategy of
Maritime Pressure would greatly improve if they were integrated at the tactical level into the
future multi-domain C2 network that the United States should develop for its own systems.
Japan provides critical basing and access for U.S. forces, but U.S. presence inside Japan ishighly concentrated and increasingly vulnerable inside the range of China’s A2/AD networks.
Roughly 75 percent of all U.S. forces in Japan are located on Okinawa, well within the densest
areas of coverage China’s precision strike regime can range. The United States should workwith Japan to erect agreements that would allow aircraft to shift away from untenable bases in
Okinawa during a crisis to operate from a more distributed posture on Japanese territory. This
includes both air forces operating from a broader set of bases across the home islands andground forces operating along the arc of the Ryukyus.
Philippines: Faced with Chinese encroachment and coercion against SCS features controlled
by the Philippines, Manila has taken some steps to pursue military modernization. Indeed,
the Duterte government approved plans to procure new defense equipment under its Second
Horizon modernization program which has been allocated approximately $5.6 billion for arange of platforms.97 However, it is still unclear what exactly will be procured, in what quantities, and in what sequence.
For example, the Philippine Navy (PNA) issued a preliminary request for proposals for at least
two submarines. At the same time, a PNA report stated that it also requires new corvettes,
amphibious assault vehicles, anti-submarine helicopters, fast-attack craft, medium-lift helicopters, and additional frigates and multirole vessels. Requirements from the Philippine Air

96

Japan MOD, Medium Term Defense Program (FY 2019–FY 2023) (Tokyo: Japan MOD, December 18, 2018), available
at https://www.mod.go.jp/j/approach/agenda/guideline/2019/pdf/chuki_seibi31-35_e.pdf; and Michael J. Green andJeffrey W. Hornung, “Is Japan’s New Defense Plan Ambitious Enough?” War on the Rocks, December 6, 2018, available
at https://warontherocks.com/2018/12/is-japans-new-defense-plan-ambitious-enough/.

97

Jon Grevatt, “Philippines Moves Ahead with ‘Second Horizon’ Modernization,” Jane’s Defence Weekly, June 21, 2018,available at https://www.janes.com/article/81234/philippines-moves-ahead-with-second-horizon-modernisation.

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Force include radars, fixed-wing transport aircraft, heavy-lift helicopters, attack and utility
helicopters, UAS, long-range patrol aircraft, and new fighter aircraft. Desired procurements
by the Philippine Army include towed and self-propelled howitzers, rocket launchers, armoredrecovery vehicles, fire-support vehicles, tactical radios, ground mobility equipment, firearms,
and night-fighting equipment.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines should emphasize cost-effective capabilities that would
complicate Chinese efforts to gain sea control in the SCS and enable the Philippines to raise
the cost of a PLA assault on its territory. Assets such as UAS and other ISR systems, patrol
ships, coastal defense cruise missiles, mobile air defenses, and electronic warfare systems
would give Philippine forces cross-domain capabilities to monitor maritime approaches anddefend the archipelago.
Most important to the strategy of Maritime Pressure, though, is reliable U.S. access to thePhilippines as a regular presence, as well as to airstrips, ports, and other installations for thestockpile of defense equipment and supplies. Access to the territory of the Philippines would
enable U.S. ground forces with multi-domain capabilities positioned there to contest Chinese
military operations across much of the SCS, the Luzon Strait, and potentially even the Taiwan
Strait. They could also defend the southern approaches to Guam and the Second Island Chain.
Efforts to stockpile U.S. equipment and supplies in the Philippines began under the 2014
Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. The United States will build facilities onfive Philippine military bases: Basa Air Base (Luzon), Fort Magsaysay (Luzon), MactanBenito Ebuen Air Base (Cebu), Antonio Bautista Air Base (Palawan), and Lumbia Air Base
(Mindanao). From these sites, U.S. and Philippine forces arriving from disparate locations
could link up with pre-positioned equipment and disperse to their predetermined deployment
areas. Exercising this maneuver should be practiced—and publicly demonstrated—regularly,
much like the NATO REFORGER exercises during the Cold War.
Despite these promising plans, five years later only one site has opened.98 The constructionof these facilities should be expedited. One obstacle is that as a precondition for continuing
the agreement, the current government has insisted that no arms be stored at these sites,
only disaster relief supplies and fuel for aircraft.99 There is no indication so far that barracks,
hangars, storage for other defense equipment and materiel, or any of the other infrastructure to support a robust U.S. rotational presence will be allowed. Although the United Statesshould continue to seek to strengthen the alliance and pursue greater access to the territory of
the Philippines, in light of these challenges, it should not adopt a strategy that succeeds or fails

98

Seth Robson, “Facility for U.S. Forces Opens on Philippines’ Main Island; Another Slated for
Palawan,” Stars and Stripes, January 31, 2019, available at https://www.stripes.com/news/
facility-for-us-forces-opens-on-philippines-main-island-another-slated-for-palawan-1.566695.

99

Marlon Ramos, “Duterte OKs U.S. facilities in PH camps,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, February 8, 2017, available athttps://newsinfo.inquirer.net/869269/duterte-oks-us-facilities-in-ph-camps.

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based on access to the Philippines. As such, the United States should consider ways to mitigate
a potential lack of access to the Philippines during a conflict.
Australia: The United States and Australia have fought together in every major conflict sinceWorld War I. Much like Japan, it is one of the closest and most capable allies of the UnitedStates. Australia could serve as the southern anchor of a Maritime Pressure strategy. In peacetime, its robust ISR capabilities could enhance situational awareness in the SCS and thegreater region, helping neighboring states counter Chinese malign behavior below the levelof armed conflict and increase indications and warning of potential Chinese aggression. In a
conflict, Australia’s highly capable air and surface naval forces could augment U.S. outside
forces, while its growing submarine forces could operate as part of the inside forces. Australia
could also deploy long-range ISR and land-based precision strike capabilities to its Northern
Islands to help contest the Savu and Timor Seas and stiffen the First Island Chain defensive
barrier in the southern SCS. Moreover, Australia might leverage its strong relationships with
Southeast Asian states to build their capabilities and, potentially, gain access for its forces. If
so, this would mitigate the risk of access being denied to U.S. military forces at critical times.
In a conflict with China, the U.S. ability to operate from Australia would be invaluable.
Australia could also act as a marshalling area for any NATO allies that might support theUnited States with military forces in a conflict. Its northern airbases are close enough for U.S.
bomber, refueling, maritime patrol, and unmanned ISR aircraft to support SCS contingencies, yet far enough from most of the PLA air and missile threat. Even if threatened by a small
number of capable systems, the scale and intensity of Chinese attacks would be relatively
manageable, with less impact on air operations.
Many past CSBA wargames have examined the operational utility of basing U.S. assets innorthern Australia. Although the games found that U.S. air operations from bases like Royal
Australian Air Force (RAAF) Darwin and Tindal would be critical in a conflict with China, theyalso highlighted the fact that the facilities’ fuel storage and resupply infrastructure are insufficient to support sustained, large-scale U.S. air operations. In addition, whereas all airbases
in northern Australia can support fighters, only a couple (RAAF Darwin and Learmonth) haverunways to support sustained operations by heavy tankers and bombers.
Australia has already publicly committed to taking steps to address this concern. In its 2016
Defence White Paper, the Australian Government pledged to improve its fuel resilience andcapacity to transport bulk fuel to support its bases and operations, including a rail link to
RAAF Tindal and additional airbase fuel storage.100 Australia also recently began a project toimprove the Tindal runway to accept the KC-30A tanker and larger U.S. military aircraft.101

100 Australia MOD, 2016 Defence White Paper (Canberra: Australia MOD, February 2016), pp. 43–44, available at http://
www.defence.gov.au/WhitePaper/Docs/2016-Defence-White-Paper.pdf.
101

Chris McLennan, “Tindal Upgrade Goes to Tender,” Katherine Times, November 23, 2017, available at https://www.
katherinetimes.com.au/story/5075677/tindal-upgrade-goes-to-tender/.

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DoD should work with the Government of Australia to expand and harden airbase fuel stores,
establish a regional Defense Fuel Support Point (DFSP) in northern Australia comparable toalready established Pacific DFSPs, and enhance resupply lines to airbases. These upgrades
would alleviate the current logistical challenges with conducting air operations from northern
Australia and distribute U.S. air operations from their current reliance on more vulnerable
airbases in Japan and Guam. Overall, this would significantly enhance the U.S. warfighting
posture in the Indo-Pacific and more credibly support a strategy of Maritime Pressure.
Another area where Australia can work with the United States is in joint-base development.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence recently announced plans to develop a new naval base on
Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island jointly with Australia.102 The specific development plans
have not been revealed, but Australia and the United States should also pursue basing rights
to the nearby Momote airfield. Commanding a position north of mainland Papua New Guinea
and flanking the approaches to maritime East Asia and the sea lines of communication toeastern Australia, New Zealand, and beyond, Manus is a sound location for allied air and naval
assets to support a strategy of Maritime Pressure.

What the Force Is Doing: Current Activities
Having outlined the Inside-Out concept, this section now assesses the current activities of U.S.
and allied forces to illuminate where changes are needed most urgently. The assessment isdivided into concepts, capabilities, and coordination to reflect Maritime Pressure’s emphasison the United States pursuing countermoves in the areas of doctrine, technology, and allies,
respectively.103
This assessment yields two findings. First, although the U.S. military Services have developed useful concepts and capabilities for fielding precision-strike networks along the First
Island Chain, their efforts appear both disjointed and riddled with common pitfalls, including
single-Service solutions, inflexible combat formations, and resource-intensive large weapons
platforms. With tighter coordination and greater receptivity to new approaches, the U.S. military will progress more rapidly toward improving the military balance with China. Second,although U.S. and allied militaries have improved coordination for precision-strike operations, budgetary and political constraints continue to impede progress. Painful tradeoffs still

102 Jonathan Barrett, “U.S. Joins Australian Plan to Develop New Pacific Naval Base,”
Reuters, November 17, 2018, available at https://www.reuters.com/article/
us-apec-summit-port/u-s-joins-australian-plan-to-develop-new-pacific-naval-base-idUSKCN1NM06X.
103 The current activities assessment is limited primarily to the missiles and sensors the authors recommend fielding inprecision-strike networks along the First Island Chain. The authors acknowledge that the networks would containmany capabilities besides missiles and sensors. They also recognize that prevailing against China will require more than
precision-strike networks. Previous CSBA research has explored other necessary capabilities in detail; interested readers
should consult those studies for more information. For the present section, however, the authors have chosen to focus on
the strike forces forming the backbone of a Maritime Pressure strategy.

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lie ahead if the United States and its allies hope to use a Maritime Pressure strategy to check
China’s burgeoning military influence.

Concepts
Over the last several years, the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force have developed new
warfighting concepts that fit comfortably within a strategy of Maritime Pressure. Although theconcepts are impressive, the Services still devote too much attention to preserving the traditional American approach to power projection in the Western Pacific.104 Furthermore, Service
concept development efforts are relatively disjointed and uncoordinated from one another,and joint operational concept development is currently lacking within DoD.105
The Services will operate together during any plausible conflict with China. However, they
have not settled on a specific unifying operational challenge to guide force development
efforts. Whereas the Army and Air Force have embraced Multidomain Operations (MDO)
as an organizing idea, the Navy has resisted it because, according to naval leaders, the Navyalready operates in multiple domains on its own, so the concept is nothing new.106 For its part,the Marine Corps appears increasingly receptive to precision-strike concepts.107
Army: The concept of MDO—formerly known as Multidomain Battle—is guiding the Army’s
modernization priorities, including its advances in long-range precision fires, a next-generation combat vehicle, vertical lift, air-and-missile defense, and soldier lethality.108 Hard-pressedto fill these gaps after a decades-long counterinsurgency campaign, the Army has identified
the need for the joint force to converge capabilities across all domains rapidly and continuously. In particular, the Army’s Cross-Functional Team for Fires has pursued new tactical,
operational, and strategic surface-to-surface fires. To support these efforts, the Army created a
Multidomain Operations Task Force built around an artillery brigade. The Task Force participated in the Pacific Pathways program, deploying to countries of interest. In the 2018 Rim

104 David M. Edelstein, “Competition with China and the Future of the Asian International Order,”War on the Rocks, February 6, 2019, available at https://warontherocks.com/2019/02/
competition-with-china-and-the-future-of-the-asian-international-order/.
105

NDS Commission, Providing for the Common Defense, p. viii.

106 Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., “All Services Sign on To Data Sharing—But Not to Multi-Domain,” Breaking Defense, February 8,
2019, available at https://breakingdefense.com/2019/02/all-services-sign-on-to-data-sharing-but-not-to-multi-domain/.
107

Shawn Snow, “Marines Seize an Airfield and Small Island While Testing Tactics for Fight against China,” Marine Corps
Times, March 21, 2019. The Marine Corps previously resisted efforts to transform Marine riflemen into precision-firecontrollers. In the 1996 Hunter Warrior experiment, for instance, Marines in dispersed squads directed missile strikes
against enemy forces. Marine leaders criticized the exercise for abandoning the Service’s competencies of close combat,
maneuver operations, amphibious warfare. See Thomas G. Mahnken, Technology and the American Way of War since1945 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008), pp. 198–199.

108 TRADOC, “Multi-Domain Operations,” Stand-To! October 4, 2018, available at https://www.army.mil/standto/2018-10-04.

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of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise, it successfully struck a ship with a truck-launched NSM.109
However, MDO has thus far focused primarily on a conflict with Russia in Europe. Adapting
the concept to the Pacific theater—along with identifying the associated capability, posture,and force structure implications—remains a future project.110 Moreover, MDO primarily seeks
to defeat A2/AD networks to enable joint freedom of maneuver and roll back an adversary’s
gains after the fact, rather than to blunt aggression at the start of a conflict to prevent a fait
accompli.111
Navy: In 2015, the Navy released a concept known as Distributed Lethality, calling for individual or small groups of platforms, organized into Surface Action Groups, to be distributed
over a wide area in contested environments.112 By spreading out networked forces capableof defending themselves, the concept seeks to complicate an adversary’s targeting and facilitates engaging enemy threats rapidly. Also in 2015, the Navy adopted Electromagnetic
Maneuver Warfare, a concept designed to use the electromagnetic spectrum to deny ordegrade the enemy’s ability to target naval forces.113 In 2017, the Navy debuted a new concept
titled Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO), defined as “a central, overarching operational
concept that will weave together the principles of integration, distribution and maneuver tomaximize the effectiveness of the fleet Maritime Operations Centers to synchronize all-domain
effects.”114 Navy watchers expect DMO to serve as a linchpin of the Service’s force development
efforts in the years ahead. It has also begun experimenting with unmanned surface vehicles
and possible roles they could contribute to as part of the fleet in the DMO concept.115
Marine Corps: The Marine Corps Operating Concept (MOC) provides a framework for
how the Marine Corps and Navy team will organize, train, fight, and win in future conflicts.116
Within the MOC framework, subordinate operating concepts include Littoral Operations

109 David B. Larter “The U.S. Navy’s New Anti-Ship Missile Scores a Hit at RIMPAC, But There’s a
Twist,” Defense News, July 20, 2018, available at https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2018/07/20/
the-us-navys-new-anti-ship-missile-scores-a-hit-at-rimpac-but-theres-a-twist/.
110

TRADOC, The U.S. Army in Multi-Domain Operations, p. 7.

111

While the MDO concept does discuss contesting enemy maneuver forces early in a conflict, it is one subcomponent of one
phase. The vast majority of the document is focused on dismantling A2/AD networks to enable decisive operations.

112

Thomas Rowden, Peter Gumataotao, and Peter Fanta, “Distributed Lethality,” Proceedings 141, no. 1, January 2015.

113

Mark Coffman, “Advancing Electromagnetic Maneuver Warfare,” Navy Warfare Development Command, NEXT 3, no. 2,
Summer/Fall 2015, available at https://www.nwdc.navy.mil/NeXT%20Assets/current/NeXTw2016.aspx.

114“CNO Visits Navy Warfare Development Command,” U.S. Navy Warfare Development Command, April 13, 2017, available
at http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=99893.

115

David B. Larter, “With Billions Planned in Funding, the U.S. Navy Charts Its Unmanned Future,” Defense
News, May 6, 2019, available at https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/navy-league/2019/05/06/
with-billions-planned-in-funding-the-us-navy-charts-its-unmanned-future/.

116

U.S. Marine Corps, The Marine Corps Operating Concept: How an Expeditionary Force Operates in the 21st Century(Washington, DC: Headquarters U.S. Marine Corps, September 2016), available at https://www.mcwl.marines.mil/
Portals/34/Images/MarineCorpsOperatingConceptSept2016.pdf.

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in Contested Environments and Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations.117 These subordinate concepts emphasize using hard-to-target forward bases, a wider range of maritime
platforms, cross-domain fires, distributable units, and lighter and more agile forces for offensive operations in support of sea control. The Marine Corps has expressed interest in new
strike capabilities to defend expeditionary advanced bases, including a shore-based anti-ship
missile; it recently awarded a contract to integrate the NSM into its force structure.118 At thesame time, the Marines also remain committed to large F-35B and CH-53K buys and a twoMarine Expeditionary Brigade Joint Forcible Entry Operations construct that will requirelarger amphibious ships.119
Air Force: The Air Force has joined the Army in endorsing MDO as a centerpiece of its force
development efforts. Whereas the Army has emphasized the concept’s demand for longrange precision fires, the Air Force has highlighted the critical importance of battlespaceconnectivity, historically one of the Service’s core concerns.120 The Air Force has prioritizedleading the Multidomain Command and Control (MDC2) concept to manage the expanding
battlespace.121 Under this concept, interconnected systems and sensors would communicate with each other, allowing the Air Force to execute operations in multiple domains.122 It
is also continuing to develop a concept it calls Adaptive Basing to increase the resiliency of its
airbases and forces.123

117“Littoral Operations in a Contested Environment,” U.S. Marine Corps Concepts and Programs, September 2017, available
at http://www.candp.marines.mil/Concepts/Subordinate-Operating-Concepts/Littoral-Operations-in-a-ContestedEnvironment/; “Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations,” U.S. Marine Corps Concepts and Programs, September 2017,
available at https://www.candp.marines.mil/Concepts/Subordinate-Operating-Concepts/Expeditionary-AdvancedBase-Operations/; and Justin Reynolds, “Multi-Domain Command and Control Is Coming,” Headquarters U.S. Air Force
Strategic Integration Group, September 25, 2018, available at https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1644543/
multi-domain-command-and-control-is-coming/.

118

Paul McLeary, “Marines Want Missile to Sink Ships from Shore, and They Want Them Fast,” Breaking
Defense, January 17, 2019, available at https://breakingdefense.com/2019/01/marines-want-missiles-tosink-ships-from-shores-and-they-want-them-fast/; and Sam LaGrone, “Raytheon to Arm Marine Corps with
Anti-Ship Missiles in $47M Deal,” USNI News, May 8, 2019, available at https://news.usni.org/2019/05/08/
raytheon-to-arm-marine-corps-with-anti-ship-missiles-in-47m-deal.

119

Neller, testimony before the House Appropriations Committee–Defense.

120 Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., “‘A Computer That Happens to Fly’: USAF, RAF Chiefs on MultiDomain Future,” Breaking Defense, April 16, 2018, available at https://breakingdefense.
com/2018/04/a-computer-that-happens-to-fly-usaf-raf-chiefs-on-multi-domain-future/.
121

Colin Clark, “Army Unveils Multi-Domain Concept; Joined at Hip with Air Force,” Breaking Defense, October 10, 2018,available at https://breakingdefense.com/2018/10/army-unveils-multi-domain-concept-joined-at-hip-with-air-force/.

122

Mark Pomerleau, “The Air Force Wants to Make a Multidomain Moonshot,” C4ISRNET, September 27, 2018, available athttps://www.c4isrnet.com/c2-comms/2018/09/27/the-air-force-wants-to-make-a-multidomain-moonshot/.

123

David Dammeier, Meka Toliver, and Logan Smith, “Overcoming a Power Projection Problem,” CE Online,
Spring 2016, available at https://www.afcec.af.mil/News/CE-Online/Article-Display/Article/1004470/
overcoming-a-power-projection-problem/.

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Capabilities
The Services have started developing new capabilities and adapting existing capabilities inways consistent with a Maritime Pressure strategy. On the one hand, most of the programs
are technologically sound and present relatively limited programmatic risk. They shouldreach initial operational capability on schedule within the next few years. On the other hand,
although the U.S. defense budget has increased markedly since the Trump administrationentered office, with a few exceptions the relevant capabilities have mostly plodded along at
virtually the same pace as before the budget increase.124 Since neither technological risks nor
industrial constraints caused the inertia, it can be inferred that DoD’s leadership has failed toprioritize the programs as highly as they could have. This conclusion, if accurate, illustrates
the organizational barriers facing any new strategy attempting to move the U.S. military awayfrom its traditional priorities.
Sea denial: After decades of neglect, the U.S. armed forces have begun to improve theirability to attack enemy surface ships with long-range missiles, a necessary condition for
halting Chinese aggression. The Navy plans to procure the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile(LRASM), a new stealth cruise missile with a range greater than 200 nm designed to target
high-value naval vessels in contested environments. Slated to be launched from F/A-18E/F
Super Hornets, the missile can also be launched from deck launchers and the Mark 41 VLS
deployed widely onboard the Navy’s surface ships, options that would greatly increase themissile’s operational flexibility. The Air Force is also procuring LRASM to be carried by theB-1B. The F-35 represents another possible launch platform. Meanwhile, the Marine Corps
has considered a ground-based LRASM variant launched via HIMARS.
The Navy has asked Raytheon to retrofit its Tomahawk missile with a new sensor system tooptimize its performance in an anti-ship role with an estimated range of 900 nm (over 1,600
km). The upgraded missile, known as the Maritime Strike Tomahawk, should enter service inthe mid-2020s. In April 2018, the Navy awarded Raytheon and Norway-based Kongsberg acontract for the NSM, a highly survivable munition with more than a 100 nm (185 km) range
intended for service aboard the Littoral Combat Ship and future frigate (FFG-X). Finally, in
December 2018 the Navy announced a program to refurbish and recertify Harpoon anti-ship
missiles for service aboard Los Angeles-class attack submarines.125
Despite this concrete progress, the inventory of American anti-ship missiles remains
too small given the quantity and diversity of Chinese forces discussed in Chapter 2. BothDoD and industry leaders indicate that anti-ship missile production could accelerate if
the Services requested it. Moreover, fielding a variety of anti-ship missiles in different

124

A notable exception includes accelerating the new Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) to enter service in 2023 rather than
2027. Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., “Army Building 1,000-Mile Supergun,” Breaking Defense, October 11, 2018, available athttps://breakingdefense.com/2018/10/army-builds-1000-mile-supergun/.

125

Paul McLeary, “Navy to Begin Arming Subs with Ship-Killer Missile,” Breaking Defense, December 18, 2018, available athttps://breakingdefense.com/2018/12/navy-arms-subs-with-ship-killer-missile-harpoon/.

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configurations—aboard ships, delivered by aircraft, and deployed ashore—would inject uncertainty into Chinese planning, forcing the PLA to honor the threat of anti-ship missiles stashedon ships or ashore. The PLA would have to alter its operations accordingly. The resulting
threat-avoidance dynamic would impose costs on China while providing the United Stateswith the ability to disarm high-value Chinese naval assets and other targets in a conflict’s
opening phase.
Air denial: Both the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps have begun to rebuild their air
defense capabilities after years of divestment and neglect. The U.S. Army has included air
and missile defense as one of its six modernization priorities and is currently developing
several new air defense missile, radar, and C2 systems including maneuver short-range air
defense (MSHORAD), Indirect Fire Protection Capability (IFPC), Lower Tier Air Defense,
Integrated Air Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS), and directed energy air
defense systems.126 The U.S. Marine Corps is developing its own family of air defense systems
called Ground Based Air Defense. However, these systems are primarily short-range systems
designed to protect its forces and bases rather than to deny airspace over a wide area and at
range. Patriot, the only current or planned land-based system capable of providing wide-area,
longer-range defense against air threats, remains vulnerable to a mass Chinese ballistic andcruise missile attack because it is semi-fixed, lacks replacements radars, and is not supported
by protection aids such as decoys or false emitters. Even if several batteries were positioned
to defend a critical facility such as Kadena Air Base, the sheer number of Chinese ballistic andcruise missiles would be overwhelming.127 Moreover, although the Army has announced an
objective of increasing its inventory of SHORAD battalions from nine to eighteen, including
ten in the active force, as well as adding an IFPC battery to each Patriot battalion, the decision
to resource these objectives has yet to be made.128
Land attack: The Army’s Long-Range Precision Fires team has pursued several new groundbased missiles and cannons to attack enemy ground targets (Figure 8). Although planners
typically envision using these capabilities in an Eastern Europe scenario involving Russia,
they would also prove useful against China in the Western Pacific, particularly for suppressing
movement ashore and conducting country-battery fire. Secretary of the Army Mark Esper said
developing the capabilities was his Service’s number one priority pending U.S. withdrawal
from the INF.129

126

U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC), Army Air and Missile Defense 2028: Air and Missile Defense
Vision 2028 (Huntsville, AL: U.S. Army, March 2019), pp. 10–13, available at https://www.smdc.army.mil/Portals/38/
Documents/Publications/Publications/AMD_2028_0319.pdf.

127

Thomas Shugart and Javier Gonzalez, First Strike: China’s Missile Threat to U.S. Bases in Asia (Washington, DC: Center
for a New American Security, 2017), p. 13.

128 U.S. Army SMDC, Army Air and Missile Defense 2028, pp. 13–14.
129

Natalie Johnson, “Long-Range Firing Capabilities Army’s No. 1 Priority After INF Withdrawal,”
Washington Free Beacon, November 9, 2018, available at https://freebeacon.com/national-security/
long-range-firing-capabilities-armys-no-1-priority-inf-withdrawal/.

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Figure 8: Current & Future US Army Ground Launched Systems

FIGURE 8: CURRENT AND FUTURE U.S. ARMY GROUND-LAUNCHED SYSTEMS
Variation in Y-values is for illustration only, not intended to reflect
relative altitude

Range:

200 mi

400 mi

600 mi

800 mi1000 mi1200 mi1400 mi1600 miIn service/Full Operational Capability
Ramjet Howitzer (81 mi)

In development (near future)
In development (TBD)

GMLRS, ERCA Howitzer (43 mi)

M549 (19 mi)
PRSM (310 mi)
Strategic Long-Range Cannon (1,000 mi)

ATACMS (186 mi)

Hypersonic Missile (1,400 mi)

GMLR-ER (93 mi)
RAP Howitzer (25 mi)

Distance from
Philippines to:Mischief
Reef

Fiery Cross
Reef

Woody
Island(Paracels)

ShanghaiLushun Beijing

HainanDistances reflect those from notional targets to the nearest point on the Philippines islands

The longest-range system in the Army’s current inventory, the Army Tactical Missile System(ATACMS), extends only about 186 mi (300 km). For longer-range fires, the Army wants a
hypersonic weapon with a notional range of 1,400 mi, a capability the Services are developing
jointly.130 The Army version would use a ground-based launcher that is the most technicallystraightforward, meaning the Army might “get there the fastest,” as one leader claimed, anddeploy its hypersonic weapon before the other Services.131 While a weapon like this would be
expensive, and thus hard to field in large quantities, it would hold at risk high-value Chinese
targets. The Army also wants the so-called Strategic Long-Range Cannon (SLRC) to striketargets up to 1,000 mi away using a projectile that will cost far less per shot than the exquisite option represented by a hypersonic missile.132 The new relocatable cannon would leveragetechnologies the Army already possesses. If it is an electromagnetic railgun, it will require alarge power source and be more expensive; if the projectile is a glider or UAS that flies longrange after launch, it will be less costly.
To complement these long-range weapons, the Army wants to replace or upgrade numerous
short-range howitzers and medium-range systems, to include fielding the new extended-range
mobile Guided Multiple-Launch Rocket System (GMLRS-ER) that shoots twice as far as theexisting system and the new mobile Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) that extends the rangeof ATACMS by almost 70 percent (310 mi/499 km), putting it just under the 500 km limit

130 Jason Sherman, “DOD Eyes Common Hypersonic Glide Body for Use Across Army, Navy, Air
Force,” Inside Defense, September 13, 2018, available at https://insidedefense.com/daily-news/
dod-eyes-common-hypersonic-glide-body-use-across-army-navy-air-force.
131

Freedberg, “Army Building 1,000-Mile Supergun.”132

Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., “Army Seeks 1,000-Mile Missiles vs. Russia, China,” Breaking Defense, September 10, 2018,available at https://breakingdefense.com/2018/09/army-seeks-1000-mile-missiles-vs-russia-china/.

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stipulated in the INF Treaty.133 The Army is working on a seeker that would give the PrSM ananti-ship capability in addition to its standard ground-attack function.134
Resiliency and sustainment: Over the past five years, the U.S. military has invested inhardening and improving Pacific air bases, developing additional air fields to support distributed air operations, and enhancing the survivability of the carrier strike group. For example,
the Air Force is further developing its Rapid Raptor program, which is designed to deploy four
F-22s with C-17 support, fuel, and weapons anywhere in the world within 24 hours. However,apart from the Army and Marine Corps future vertical lift programs, there are not manytactical aircraft smaller than the C-130 or C-17 in the U.S. inventory which can operate fromthe shorter, rougher, or improvised airfields required for the distributed operations called
for under the Inside-Out concept. For its part, the Navy is currently working on the Pipefish
concept, an unmanned system designed to bring fuel to forces afloat or ashore.135
DoD is also pursuing numerous new communication systems and improvements of existing
capabilities to sustain the bandwidth, range, and latency needed for future operations. The
proliferation of new and improved systems, however, threatens to reduce interoperability
between capabilities. Moreover, efforts to improve communications are often not consideredin the context of existing or future C2 approaches, which include new operational concepts
using distributed forces, large numbers of unmanned systems, and actions across multiple
domains.136
All the concepts being pursued by the Services still require assured access to the electromagnetic spectrum, and investments in advanced electronic warfare capabilities to complicate
Chinese C4ISR have been lacking, particularly for ground forces. This is beginning to change
in earnest after decades of lower-intensity counterinsurgency operations. For example, theArmy recently constituted an Intelligence, Information, Cyber, Electronic Warfare, and Space(I2CEWS) battalion at Fort Lewis, WA as part of the Multi-Domain Operations Task Force. It
plans to augment formations at multiple echelons with Cyber and Electromagnetic Activities
elements. The Services have also invested in a handful of systems like the F-35 with a multifunction AESA radar, the Navy’s Next Generation Jammer and Marine Corps’ Intrepid Tiger
II pod for the Navy’s EA-18G electronic warfare aircraft, and an Air Force replacement for
EC-130H Compass Call electronic attack aircraft. Additionally, the Army and Marine Corps
are investing in new spectrum management tools and long-endurance UAS with electronic
warfare systems, modernizing radio battalions to incorporate electronic intelligence and cybercapability, and limiting emissions through better signature management. Overall, though, the

133

Ibid.

134

Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., “Army Will Field 100 Km Cannon, 500 Km Missiles: LRPF CFT,” Breaking Defense, March 23,
2018, available at https://breakingdefense.com/2018/03/army-will-field-100-km-cannon-500-km-missiles-lrpf-cft/.

135

Walton, Boone, and Schramm, Sustaining the Fight, pp. 46–47.

136

David G. Perkins, “Multi-Domain Battle Driving Change to Win in the Future,” Military Review 97, no. 4, July-August
2017, p. 6–12.

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Services have lost much of their expertise in electromagnetic spectrum operations since theend of the Cold War. It will take time for DoD to regain that intellectual capital and recreate a
dedicated electronic warfare community.

Coordination
In recent years, U.S. and allied militaries have made several moves consistent with a strategyof Maritime Pressure. Notable activities include new investments, exercises, and arms sales tooperate more effectively in highly contested A2/AD environments. Despite this progress, longstanding budgetary and political constraints have prevented the United States and its allies
from maximizing their preparedness. Finding new, creative solutions to these perennial problems will allow the allies to project a unified front to China, bolstering deterrence in peace anddefense in war.
Allied and partner forces: Allied militaries in the Western Pacific have improved theirreadiness for a potential confrontation with China. Japan and Australia have led the way.
Japan’s 2018 National Defense Program Guidelines endorsed several themes tied to a
Maritime Pressure strategy, including joint multi-domain operations, persistent ISR, standoff
firepower, and air and missile defense.137 To make this declaratory policy reality, Japan agreed
to buy two Aegis Ashore batteries worth over $2 billion to defend against air and missile
attacks.138 It also started developing an extended-range, air-launched ASCM and a hypersonicmissile.139 Japanese officials previously expressed interest in other standoff weapons including
LRASM.140 In late 2018, Japan announced that its defense budget would grow by 1.3 percent,the seventh consecutive annual increase since 2012.141
Australia’s 2016 Defence White Paper committed the nation to an ambitious modernization program. It pledged to spend at least 2 percent of GDP on defense and to double the sizeof the submarine force from six to twelve boats.142 So far, the government has upheld thesecommitments. The latest Australian budget remained on track to reach the 2 percent target in
2020–2021.143 In February 2019, the government signed a $35 billion contract with France’s
Naval Group for 12 new Attack-class submarines, Australia’s biggest-ever defense contract.144

137

Japan MOD, National Defense Program Guidelines for FY 2019 and Beyond, pp. 21–22, 26–27.

138

Franz-Stefan Gady, “U.S. State Department Approves $2.15 Billion Aegis Ashore Sale to Japan,” The Diplomat, January
30, 2019.

139“Japan Announces Longer-Range Cruise Missile Development,” Kyodo News, March 19, 2019; and Elizabeth Shim,“Japan to Develop Hypersonic Missile for ‘Defense Purposes’,” UPI, September 19, 2018.

140 Mike Yeo, “Japan Confirms Long-Range Missile Interest in an About-Face,” Defense News, December 11, 2017.
141

Mari Yamaguchi, “Japan Cabinet OKs Record Defense Budget Bill, U.S. Arms Buys,” Associated Press, December 21,
2018.

142

Australia MOD, 2016 Defence White Paper, pp. 24, 90–91.

143

Katherine Ziesing, “Defence Budget 2018 at a Glance,” Australian Defence Magazine, May 8, 2018.

144

Christina Mackenzie, “Naval Group Clinches $35 Billion Australian Submarine Deal,” Defense News, February 11, 2019.

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The United States, Japan, and Australia have used military-to-military engagements todevelop the operational concepts supporting these capabilities. Foremost among these is
RIMPAC, the world’s largest maritime exercise hosted biennially by the United States in andaround Hawaii. The most visible allied demonstration of RIMPAC 2018 involved an exercise
in which the three militaries attacked and sank the Racine, a decommissioned landing ship.145
The U.S. Army fired an NSM from a palletized truck-mounted launcher. Japan’s Ground SelfDefense Force fired its own truck-mounted Type 12 anti-ship missiles. Australia used its new
P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft to hit the hulk with an AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship
missile. Finally, a U.S. submarine fired a Harpoon and a Mark 48 torpedo, which broke theship’s keel and sent her below. The exercise was the closest the countries have come to demonstrating operations under a Maritime Pressure strategy.
Despite such achievements, challenges remain for allied military planners. In Japan, barriers
to inter-Service cooperation and joint operations remain.146 There is also domestic politicalresistance to fielding any capabilities that have offensive potential, such as standoff missiles.
Meanwhile, leading observers in Australia have questioned whether Canberra is investingenough in long-range strike capabilities.147

Recommended Changes to Concepts, Capabilities, and Coordination
Concepts
Develop this report’s approach into a joint operational concept to support a
strategy of Maritime Pressure in the Western Pacific. The Services continue todevelop new warfighting concepts, but these efforts are uncoordinated and lack joint integration. A joint operational concept to support a Maritime Pressure strategy in the Western
Pacific could provide Service efforts a framework that would facilitate deeper integration andcoordination. The Joint Staff should take Inside-Out Defense as a point of departure anddevelop a new joint operational concept.
Experiment with new organizational structures for ground forces in the Pacific.
Given that it is forward stationed in the Western Pacific, III MEF and its subordinate units
could form the core of the inside forces in an Inside-Out Defense concept. III MEF would
also likely need to be augmented as inside forces with U.S. Army units located in the Pacific
Theater such as the 25th Infantry Division, which is primarily based in Hawaii. However, bothformations are maneuver warfare-centric organizations best suited for traditional amphibious

145

William Cole, “U.S. and Japan Fire Missiles to Sink Ship During RIMPAC,” Honolulu Star-Advertiser, July 15, 2018.
Of note, the exercise was not intended to test how fast they could sink the ship, but rather to test the force’s ability tocoordinate an attack across Services and weapons systems.

146

Dennis Blair, “Chairman’s Message: What Japan’s Third National Defense Program Guidelines Should Have
Said,” Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA, February 1, 2019, available at https://spfusa.org/chairmans-message/
chairmans-message-what-japans-third-national-defense-program-guidelines-should-have-said/.

147

Malcolm Davis, “ADF Gap to Fill for Deterring Powerful Foes,” The Australian, October 3, 2017.

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or ground combat operations. The Marine Corps and Army should experiment with alternative
force designs that take advantage of novel combinations of C2, fires, air defense, security, ISR,
engineering, electronic warfare, and sustainment capabilities to permit distributed, multidomain fires in highly contested environments along the First Island Chain.
Develop sustainment concepts to support a Maritime Pressure strategy.
Supporting distributed operations along the First Island Chain in a heavily contested environment requires new concepts for sustaining the joint force across great distances while underattack. Planners should explore innovative approaches to support distributed units, including
greater use of pre-positioned stocks of munitions and sustainment materiel, manned andunmanned air and sea assets for mobility and resupply, and emerging technologies such as 3D
printing to fabricate replacement parts.

Capabilities
Accelerate fielding of mobile, land-based, long-range missile capabilities. Groundforce contributions to sea denial, air denial, and land attack operations along the First Island
Chain require sharper and longer teeth. Current efforts of the Army and Marine Corps todevelop and field longer-range, land-based anti-ship and land-attack fires should be accelerated and should incorporate weapons with ranges in excess of 500 km, pending final
dissolution of the INF Treaty. The Army and Marine Corps should also develop more mobileand longer-range land-based air defense systems to provide wide-area air denial along theFirst Island Chain with sufficient survivability for inside forces to fight and persist within
China’s A2/AD network.
Build a resilient multi-domain C4ISR architecture and develop and field counterC4ISR capabilities. In a future conflict in the Western Pacific, the battle for information
advantage would likely be critical and could potentially prove decisive. Organic ISR capabilities such as those provided by UAS are likely to be crucial to the success of such operations.
Moreover, such platforms may be capable of serving as communications links to support
dispersed operations. The U.S. military should also undertake efforts to make its C4ISR
architecture more resilient while developing and fielding active and passive counter-C4ISR
capabilities such as jammers and CCD.
Integrate all bomber aircraft with payloads for offensive maritime missions. DoD
should integrate anti-ship missiles and air-dropped mines into its fleet of bombers. Althoughanti-surface warfare would be a new mission for these platforms, it would be a return to form
for the bomber community that played important maritime roles during World War II and theCold War. These capabilities are currently being fielded with several aircraft such as the B-1B,
but integrating them with platforms possessing comparable ranges and greater survivability
would give the United States the capability to attack enemy surface combatants and otherhigh-value maritime targets in highly contested environments that other anti-surface warfare
platforms may not be able to reach. For example, the B-2 is already integrating the JASSM-ER
missile on which the LRASM is based, and has a capable AESA radar system with a maritime

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mode that has so far gone unused. The same aircraft could penetrate deep into enemy territory
and lay mines in ports, rivers, and other areas to slow down enemy operations and channel
enemy vessels in specific directions.

Coordination
Deepen cooperation with Indo-Pacific allies and partners. Allies and partners will be
critical in a Maritime Pressure strategy, both in terms of accessing their territory and the capabilities and forces they contribute. The U.S. military should engage closely with Indo-Pacificallies and partners to form enhanced access agreements for both peacetime and war, as well as
gain a better understanding of what roles each ally and partner may be willing to perform andwith what forces in each potential contingency. The U.S. military should also work to deepen
interoperability among U.S. and allied and partner forces, particularly regarding the mostcapable Indo-Pacific allies such as Japan and Australia. DoD should work with Japan andAustralia to develop combined concepts of operations.
Reexamine Service roles and missions. As new concepts for warfighting in the Western
Pacific continue to mature, so too should existing Service roles and missions. For example,
Inside-Out Defense envisions both Army and Marine forces playing a larger role in antisurface warfare missions. But key questions remain, such as whether they would provide
similar or distinct capabilities for those missions and whether they would perform themissions in separate or overlapping geographic areas. Answering questions like these will help
harmonize ongoing efforts to develop new concepts and capabilities across the Services. As
such, the U.S. military should review roles and missions to ensure emerging efforts are integrated and complementary rather than disjointed and needlessly duplicative.

Anticipating Chinese Reactions
Any evaluation of a candidate strategy should consider whether it provides an expanded setof options for the United States and its allies while constraining those available to China;
whether it puts the United States and its allies on the right side of the cost equation; andwhether it yields the initiative, forcing competitors to respond. At first blush, the strategyof Maritime Pressure described above would appear to be promising. However, strategy isby its nature interactive. As a result, it is worth thinking through how China might react tothe concepts, capabilities, and coordination described above. Although predicting Chinese
responses remains difficult, at least three distinct, although not mutually exclusive, responses
appear plausible, although they may take years to manifest themselves. Other responses are ofcourse possible and deserve thorough consideration.
First, the implementation of an allied Maritime Pressure strategy might cause the PLA to
double down on its investments in A2/AD capabilities. In particular, the PLA might seek toincrease its ability to find and strike ground-based mobile systems by improving its targeting
capabilities and expanding its already large inventory of ground-based missiles. It could also

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seek to target the sensors and networks that would be needed to support distributed ground
operations. Chinese scholars have floated such an option, and it appears consistent with the
PLA’s existing doctrine and organizational culture.148 Chinese domestic politics might drive
this response. If the Chinese leadership were to abandon A2/AD, the PLA and the CCP leadership might leave themselves open to criticism for squandering massive resources in pursuitof a failed strategy.149 To avoid such embarrassment, Chinese leaders instead might resolutely
press ahead with A2/AD advancements in response to a U.S. Maritime Pressure strategy.
Whatever political dynamic ensues, attempts to find, target, and strike dispersed, groundbased forces operating in complex terrain will likely prove challenging for the PLA. Suchforces, once lodged in the First Island Chain, would be difficult if not impossible to root out.
Even the possible introduction of such forces into the First Island Chain will produce uncertainty as to the capabilities facing China. Once such uncertainty has been introduced, it would
be difficult if not impossible to eliminate. Even a massive effort to find and destroy dispersed
units in the First Island Chain is unlikely to yield certainty that the threat posed by such forces
has been eliminated. Trying to circumvent dispersed ground forces, as the United States didagainst Japan during World War II, would also prove difficult, especially if the ground-based
missiles had long range and were backed up by air and naval forces, as is proposed in thisreport. Assuming Chinese advancements do not negate the survivability of dispersed, groundbased U.S. strike forces, the resulting competitive dynamic would benefit the United States.
Every yuan spent on Chinese A2/AD improvements that do not appreciably alter the balanceof power is a yuan not spent on Chinese power projection, nuclear weapons, or other capabilities that more seriously threaten U.S. and allied interests.
A second potential response to a Maritime Pressure strategy would be for Beijing to re-focus
its attention away from its maritime flanks and toward the Asian continent, accelerating a
trend that is already apparent in Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative. Facing greater pushback in the Asian littoral, the Chinese leadership might seek to redouble its efforts to build
economic, political, and military influence in Central Asia and beyond, a development thatwould be less threatening to the United States and its allies. It is also possible that perceived
failure on the maritime front, complete with public criticism of Chinese A2/AD investments,
could cause the CCP to worry about regime stability, premised as it is on nationalism andforeign policy success. The CCP might then be compelled to devote more resources toward
inward-looking activities, including internal security and related efforts.
Third, because the deployment of U.S. and mobile ground-based forces likely poses sucha nettlesome problem, China can be expected to devote considerable effort to preventing
it. Perhaps the best option for China would be using a mixture of political and economic

148 Jacob Stokes, China’s Missile Program and Potential U.S. Withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces(INF) Treaty, Staff Research Report (Washington, DC: U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, 2019), p.
5.
149

The authors thank an anonymous reviewer for suggesting this possibility.

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pressure and inducements to dissuade allies and partners in the region from cooperatingwith the United States. Beijing could harness its considerable political warfare capabilities inthe service of slowing or stopping such a strategy by, for example, portraying U.S. and allied
capabilities as offensive and destabilizing. Pursuing political action would prove attractive to
China because, if conducted prudently, it would avoid some of the escalatory risks inherent
in responding militarily. China might impose economic or trade sanctions against countries
like Japan that joined the American strategy. It might also pursue a messaging campaign toportray the United States and its allies as aggressors, hoping to win sympathy in the court ofinternational public opinion. The United States must thus stand ready to compete with China
across the wide spectrum of grand strategy if it chooses to implement a strategy of Maritime
Pressure.

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CHAPTER 4

Potential Costs
A Maritime Pressure strategy appears quite promising. However, a strategy that ignores
costs is no strategy at all. Whereas past studies have generally avoided assessing the resource
implications of fielding precision-strike networks along the First Island Chain, this chapter
estimates how much the United States might spend implementing such an approach. It
focuses only on budgetary costs to the United States, omitting non-budgetary and non-U.S.
costs.150 It considers some specific initiatives that DoD could pursue to satisfy Chapter 3’s
general recommendations.
Pursuing the strategy described in this report could cost an estimated $8 billion to $13 billion
through 2024, plus sustainment costs for each year thereafter, depending on the specificinvestments DoD selected.151 This estimate represents additional spending beyond the plansreflected in the fiscal year (FY) 2020 budget request. Longer-term costs could grow higher,
totaling $30 billion or more, depending on how extensively DoD reorganized its forces andadjusted its posture.
DoD could resource the strategy in one of two ways. It could add the costs of the strategy
to current plans without altering those plans substantially. In that case, the defense budget
topline would increase by an amount equal to the strategy’s cost. Alternatively, DoD could
adopt the strategy in lieu of current plans. Under that scenario, the topline would increaseby an amount less than the strategy’s cost. The topline might even decrease if the strategy
replaced more than $8–13 billion worth of current plans. To offer but a few examples, DoD
could save enough money to finance the strategy by forgoing or cutting four infantry brigade

150

Other studies have addressed aspects of those topics. On Taiwan, for example, see Hunzeker and Lanoszka, A Question ofTime, pp. 76–77.

151

The estimate focuses on costs through 2024 to align with the future years defense program.

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combat teams, three LHA-6 amphibious assault ships, one Ford-class aircraft carrier, or 130
F-35A aircraft.152

Estimated Costs through 2024
This section estimates the costs that might accompany Chapter 3’s recommendations forconcepts, capabilities, and coordination (Table 1). The costs represent order-of-magnitude
approximations. They neither reflect every line item required to execute the strategy nor
derive from new parametric models. Rather, they attach an illustrative price tag to the study’s
ideas.

TABLE 1: COSTS OF MARITIME PRESSURE STRATEGY, 2020–2024
Illustrative Costs
2020–2024
Concepts$982–1,555 M$20 M

Develop this report’s approach into a joint operational concept
Experiment with new organizational structures for ground forces in the Pacific
Develop sustainment concepts to support a Maritime Pressure strategy
Capabilities$72–645 M$890 M$7,525–11,525 M

Accelerate fielding of mobile, land-based, long-range missile capabilities$3,100–6,500 M

Build a resilient multi-domain C4ISR architecture and develop and field counter-C4ISR capabilities$4,225–4,725 M

Integrate all bomber aircraft with payloads for offensive maritime missions
Coordination
Deepen cooperation with Indo-Pacific allies and partners$200–300 M$145 M$140 M

Reexamine Service roles and missions
Total

$5 M
$8,652–13,225 M

Notes: Discretionary budget authority in nominal dollars

Concepts
Develop this report’s approach into a joint operational concept to support a
strategy of Maritime Pressure in the Western Pacific. The Joint Staff and other stakeholders will need time and facilities to push Inside-Out through DoD’s concept development
process.153 On the one hand, the cost ought to remain negligible initially because government
employees and facilities will be funded regardless of whether or not DoD pursues

152

Congressional Budget Office (CBO), The U.S. Military’s Force Structure: A Primer (Washington, DC: CBO, July 2016), p.
32; CBO, An Analysis of the Navy’s Fiscal Year 2019 Shipbuilding Plan (Washington, DC: CBO, October 2018), p. 19; andGunzinger et al., An Air Force for an Era of Great Power Competition, p. xii.

153

JCS, “Guidance for Developing and Implementing Joint Concepts,” CJCSI 3010.02E, August 17, 2016.

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Inside-Out.154 On the other hand, the cost could grow if DoD requires contractor services, staff
travel, or research support, expenses that often accompany concept development initiatives.
Potential costs can be estimated by considering hypothetical adjustments to the Joint Staff’s
analysis budget. The FY 2020 budget requested $13 million to support joint capability experimentation—a new program element introduced in response to the 2019 National Defense
Authorization Act (NDAA).155 The budget includes no funds for the program during FY
2021–2024. If DoD funded it at the $13 million level for one additional year to experimentwith Inside-Out, additional costs through 2024 would total $13 million. The FY 2020 budget
also requested $4.2 million for analytical support, a figure reflecting the 25 percent reduction to management headquarters activities mandated by the 2016 NDAA.156 If DoD increased
funding by $1.5 million per year starting in 2020, restoring the program to its previous level,
additional costs through 2024 would total $7.5 million. Together, adding $13 million forexperimentation and $7.5 million for analytical support would provide the Joint Staff withapproximately $20 million in additional funds through 2024 to develop Inside-Out and otherconcepts recommended by this report, including those discussed below.157
Experiment with new organizational structures for ground forces in the Pacific.
The strategy of Maritime Pressure envisions reconfiguring U.S. ground forces in the Western
Pacific. Achieving that goal will require preparatory analysis. That analysis could draw on
the $20 million earmarked for Inside-Out concept development (see above). Beyond analysis, DoD could experiment with new concepts using existing formations. One option for
conducting such tests is the Army’s Multi-Domain Task Force, an organization created to spur
innovation.
To evaluate Inside-Out’s feasibility, the Army could try forward stationing the Multi-Domain
Task Force in the Indo-Pacific region. The unit currently is home based at Joint Base LewisMcCord, Washington, and deploys rotationally to the Indo-Pacific. Calculating the costdifferential between forward stationing versus rotationally deploying units remains a challenging task fraught with imperfect data and debatable assumptions. However, authoritative
work by the Army War College’s John Deni finds that forward stationing costs roughly 11
percent less than rotationally deploying in terms of annual recurring expenses per unit.158 If

154

Using government manhours and facilities represents an opportunity cost because DoD could dedicate them to something
else.

155

OSD, Comptroller (OSD[C]), Department of Defense (DoD) FY 2020 Budget Estimates: The Joint Staff, Research,
Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide, Justification Book Volume 5 (Washington, DC: DoD, March 2019), pp.
25–28 available at https://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/fy2020/budget_justification/
pdfs/03_RDT_and_E/11_0400_TJS_PB2020.pdf.

156

Ibid., pp. 49–56.

157

For simplicity, the estimate assumes that only the Joint Staff receives research funds. In practice other defense
organizations likely would receive them, too.

158

John R. Deni, Rotational Deployments vs. Forward Stationing: How Can the Army Achieve Assurance and Deterrence
Efficiently and Effectively? (Carlisle, PA: U.S. Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, 2017), p. 22.

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that is correct, then forward stationing the Multi-Domain Task Force could save DoD moneyin the long run. Of course, DoD might need to make other investments to realize that outcome.
It might incur military construction expenses, for example, preparing an overseas location toreceive the task force. Extrapolating from Deni’s analysis, construction expenses could total
anywhere from $72 million to $645 million in additional funding through 2024 depending on
the location selected.159
If experimentation led the Army or Marine Corps to reorganize their forces permanently, thelong-term costs would add up quickly through 2024 and beyond. This chapter excludes suchlong-term costs, instead emphasizing near-term investments. Yet they nevertheless meritbrief consideration. Past transformation initiatives provide a rough benchmark for forecasting potential longer-term costs. In 2004, the U.S. Army debuted the modularity initiative
to reorganize its forces from the old structure built around divisions to the current structure
built around brigade combat teams. The Army predicted initially that the initiative would cost
approximately $30 billion in today’s dollars.160 The actual cost grew because the initiative’s
scope expanded to include restructuring the Army’s division and corps headquarters units
as well as support units. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the initiative eventually cost $80 billion in today’s dollars.161 The modularity initiative reshaped the entire Army,
whereas this report’s recommendations would transform only select Army forces. Still, theprice tag for modularity highlights how much a major reorganization might cost in the decades
ahead.
Develop sustainment concepts to support a Maritime Pressure strategy. The U.S.
military must develop new sustainment concepts to support the dispersed operations advocated by a Maritime Pressure strategy. The concepts must reflect that sustainment in theWestern Pacific will likely occur while U.S. forces are under attack. One part of the task isintellectual, involving analysis, wargaming, and consultations with allies. Those activities
could be funded from the $20 million slated for developing Inside-Out into a joint operational
concept (see above). The other part of the task is material, involving investments in assets that
improve sustainment capacity today.
Sealift ships represent one area deserving near-term investment.162 Executing the Maritime
Pressure strategy requires possessing enough sealift to transport personnel and cargo to key
positions along the First Island Chain. The sealift fleet should include both larger assets that

159

The estimate scales down Deni’s minimum and maximum military construction estimates by 43 percent to represent thesize differential between the task force (~2,000 personnel) and an armored brigade combat team (~4,700 personnel).

160 CBO, An Analysis of the Army’s Transformation Programs and Possible Alternatives (Washington, DC: CBO, June2009), p. ix; and OSD(C), National Defense Budget Estimates for FY 2020, Green Book (Washington, DC: DoD, May2019), Table 5-6, p. 60, available at https://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/fy2020/FY20_
Green_Book.pdf.
161

The $80 billion figure excludes expenses for increasing the Army’s size and developing Future Combat Systems. CBO, An
Analysis of the Army’s Transformation Programs and Possible Alternatives, p. 33.

162

Walton, Boone, and Schramm, Sustaining the Fight, pp. 107–108.

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transport supplies into theater and smaller assets that move supplies within theater. The
importance of sealift cannot be overstated: In a war with China, the sealift fleet would transport up to 90 percent of Army and Marine Corps equipment.163 Unfortunately, the fleet faces
severe capacity challenges in the years ahead.
To improve inter-theater transport, DoD could buy 26 used foreign-built transport vessels to
replace Ready Reserve Force ships nearing the end of their service lives, a recommendation
made recently by the Defense Science Board (DSB).164 The DSB estimated that the 26 ships
altogether would cost approximately $880 million, an amount slightly exceeding the cost of
one U.S.-built large, medium-speed roll-on/roll-off ship. While the ships would be susceptible
to attack in contested environments, their lower cost and larger numbers would make any
losses less costly in military terms. DoD could spread out the 26-ship investment over the next
decade to ease pressure on other Navy programs, meaning the cost through 2024 would total$440 million. To strengthen intra-theater transport, DoD could spend approximately $450
million buying two additional Expeditionary Fast Transport (EPF) ships by 2024, bringing
the total inventory to 16 vessels.165 Altogether, strengthening the sealift fleet by buying 26 usedtransport vessels for $440 million and two additional EPFs for $450 million would require$890 million in additional funding through 2024.166

Capabilities
Accelerate fielding of mobile, land-based, long-range missile capabilities. Landbased, long-range missile capabilities are the lifeblood of the Inside-Out concept. The Armyand Marine Corps have spent an admirable amount of energy crafting new solutions, but aninfusion of additional resources would speed things along. There are several promising areas
for additional investment.
The Army and Marine Corps unfunded priority lists provide one set of options. The Army’s FY
2020 list contains several programs tied to land-based precision fires. The programs include
a low-Earth orbit capability to extract tactical imagery in contested environments, a prototype hypersonic weapons system, a joint air-to-ground seeker for the ATACMS missile, an163David B. Larter, “The US Navy Will Have to Pony Up and Race the Clock to Avoid a Sealift Capacity Collapse,” Defense
News, October 20, 2018.

164

Defense Science Board (DSB), Task Force on Survivable Logistics: Executive Summary (Washington, DC: DoD,
November 2018), pp. 5–6, available at https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/1064537.pdf.

165

U.S. Navy, Department of Defense Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 President’s Budget Estimate Submission: Shipbuilding andConversion, Navy, Justification Book Volume 1 (Washington, DC: DoD, March 2019), p. 245, available at https://www.
secnav.navy.mil/fmc/fmb/Documents/20pres/SCN_Book.pdf. An EPF’s annual operation and support cost varies basedon its workload. For unit cost targets within Military Sealift Command’s service support ships program, which includes
EPFs, see U.S. Navy, Department of the Navy Fiscal Year (FF) 2020 Budget Estimates: Navy Working Capital Fund(NWCF), Justification Of Estimates (Washington, DC: DoD, March 2019), p. 213, available at https://www.secnav.navy.
mil/fmc/fmb/Documents/20pres/NWCF_Book.pdf.

166

Beyond 2024, DoD could follow the investment plan outlined in Walton, Boone, and Schramm, Sustaining the Fight, toinclude procuring additional U.S.-built roll-on/roll-off ships starting in FY 2025.

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extended-range AN/TPQ-53 radar for counterfire target acquisition, and readiness improvements for multi-domain operations in the Pacific.167 Funding these five priorities would
require approximately $300 million in additional funds in FY 2020. If the Army identified a similarly sized investment package each year, additional funding through 2024 would
reach $1.5 billion. The Marine Corps FY 2020 list identifies several investments applicable tothe Inside-Out concept, including programs to preserve C2 in contested environments andstrengthen air defense.168 Supporting those programs would cost approximately $135 million
in FY 2020 and, again, assuming an equivalent-sized annual investment in the outyears, $675
million in additional funds through 2024. Combining the Army and Marine Corps increases of$1.5 billion and $675 million, respectively, yields a total of $2.175 billion through 2024.
Another set of options involves developing and deploying new ground-launched missiles.169
Here the report considers what DoD could do by 2024, focusing on two lines of effort related
to developing capabilities.170 The first line of effort involves pursuing new land-based missiles
such as a successor to the 1980s-era Pershing II medium-range ballistic missile (“PershingIII”) or an extended-range version of the new PrSM short-range ballistic missile. If DoD
started developing a new Pershing III in FY 2020, total additional R&D costs through 2024
could reach $900 million based on Army plans for roughly comparable initiatives.171 If DoD
procured 144 PrSMs during FY 2023 and 2024 for use by either Army or Marine Corps fires
units, following the current program timeline and assuming no additional funds are required
beyond those already planned for research and development (R&D) and launcher procurement, then additional spending could total $72–120 million through 2024.172

167

U.S. Army, “PB20 US Army CSA Unfunded Priority List,” March 25, 2019, available at https://insidedefense.com/sites/
insidedefense.com/files/documents/2019/mar/03252019_army.pdf.

168 U.S. Marine Corps, “Fiscal Year 2020 Marine Corps Unfunded Priority List,” March 25, 2019, available at https://news.
usni.org/2019/03/25/fiscal-year-2020-navy-unfunded-priorities-list.
169

These choices and costs are examined in Cohn, Walton, Yoshihara, and Lemon, Leveling the Playing Field, pp. 33–39.

170

Determining the inventories required for each capability lies beyond this section’s scope. Future research could adjust theunit costs presented here relatively easily.

171

For the FY 2020–2024 period, the Army requested $900 million for its new mobile medium-range missile. This amountrepresents a rough-but-reasonable approximation for a Pershing III development effort. U.S. Army, Department of
Defense (DoD) FY 2020 Budget Estimates: Army, RDT&E, Budget Activity 4, Justification Book Volume II (Washington,
DC: DoD, March 2019), pp. 634–639.

172

The 144-missile quantity is based on a notional fires unit organized into three batteries of six launchers with eachlauncher holding two missiles and stockpiling four ammunition sets, one initial and three reloads (i.e., three batteries
x six launchers per battery x two missiles per launcher x four ammunition sets = 144 missiles). The estimate assumes
each PrSM will cost from $500,000 to $836,000 (i.e., $500,000 x 144 missiles = $72 million; $836,000 x 144 missiles= ~$120 million). The smaller figure comes from historical DoD data based on industry claims that PrSM will be “lessthan half the cost” of ATACMS. The larger figure comes from the Government Accountability Office. “DeepStrike Missile,”factsheet, Raytheon, September 28, 2018, available at https://www.raytheon.com/capabilities/products/deepstrike_long_range_precision_fires; Cohn, Walton, Yoshihara, and Lemon, Leveling the Playing Field, p. 35; and Government
Accountability Office (GAO), Weapon Systems Annual Assessment: Limited Use of Knowledge-Based Practices Continues
to Undercut DOD’s Investments (Washington, DC: GAO, May 2019), p. 92.

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The second line of effort involves adapting air- and ship-launched missiles for groundlaunch. NSM, LRASM, and Tomahawk represent viable options. For each of the threeprograms, missile adaptation R&D could total $200–400 million based on existing estimates.173 Launcher R&D and procurement could potentially add another $200–400 million
per program depending on whether new launchers were required.174 Then comes missile
procurement. Assuming a 144-missile buy through 2024 to maintain consistency with the
PrSM calculations, NSM procurement could cost $200–274 million;175 LRASM procurement
could cost $375–430 million;176 and Tomahawk procurement could cost $160–230 million.177
Altogether, then, after combining missile adaptation R&D, launcher R&D and procurement,
and missile procurement, adapting NSM for ground launch could cost $600 million–$1.074
billion; LRASM could cost $775 million–$1.230 billion; and Tomahawk could cost $560
million–$1.030 billion.
Having explored the various options, this subsection’s estimates can be summed into a single
bottom line. At the low end of the cost spectrum, assuming minimum unit costs, with approximately $3.1 billion in additional investment through 2024, DoD could support unfunded
Army and Marine Corps long-range fires priorities, develop the Pershing III, and procure 144
PRSMs for use by either Army or Marine Corps fires units.178 At the high end of the cost spectrum, assuming maximum unit costs, with approximately $6.5 billion in additional investment
through 2024, DoD could support the unfunded priorities, develop the Pershing III, and outfit
Army or Marine Corps fires units in the Pacific with 144 missiles of each type (i.e., PRSMs,
NSMs, LRASMs, and Tomahawks), equaling 576 missiles in total.179

173

The range parameterizes existing estimates from Bonds et al., What Role Can Land-Based, Multi-Domain Anti-Access/Area Denial Forces Play, p. 137; and Cohn, Walton, Yoshihara, and Lemon, Leveling the Playing Field, p. 35.

174

Ibid.

175

The estimate assumes each NSM will cost $1.4–1.9 million (i.e., $1.4 million x 144 missiles = ~$200 million; $1.9 million
x 144 missiles = ~$274 million). The smaller figure comes from industry estimates of the smaller unit cost at larger
procurement quantities. The larger figure comes from the FY 2020 budget request. OSD(C), Department of Defense(DoD) FY 2020 Budget Estimates: Navy, Weapons Procurement, Justification Book Volume 1 (Washington, DC: DoD,March 2019), pp. 219–225.

176

The estimate assumes each LRASM will cost $2.6–3 million (i.e., $2.6 million x 144 missiles = ~$375 million; $3 million
x 144 missiles = ~$430 million). The smaller figure comes from industry and DoD estimates of the smaller unit cost atlarger procurement quantities. The larger figure comes from the FY 2020 budget request. U.S. Navy, DoD FY 2020 Budget
Estimates: Navy, Weapons Procurement, pp. 209–218.

177

The estimate assumes each Tomahawk will cost $1.1–1.6 million (i.e., $1.1 million x 144 missiles = ~$160 million; $1.6
million x 144 missiles = ~$230 million). The smaller and larger figures come from industry estimates for the Block IV andBlock V, respectively, assuming smaller unit costs at larger procurement quantities.

178

The figure is calculated as follows: $2.175 billion unfunded priorities + $900 million Pershing III + $72 million PrSM =$3.147 billion.

179

The figure is calculated as follows: $2.175 billion unfunded priorities + $900 million Pershing III + $120 million PrSM
+ $1.074 billion NSM + $1.230 billion LRASM + $1.030 billion Tomahawk = $6.529 billion. DoD could distribute themissiles to units such as III MEF’s 12th Marine Regiment forward stationed in Okinawa.

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Build a resilient multi-domain C4ISR architecture and develop and field counterC4ISR capabilities. Building a resilient C4ISR architecture is probably the report’s mostambitious and complex recommendation. The technical and classification issues involved withprotecting information networks are enormous. Merely choosing which programs fall underthe banner of “C4ISR architecture” presents great difficulties. Many experts have studied the
problems but few have produced convincing answers, particularly regarding programmatic
specifics. For all these reasons, providing a cost estimate for C4ISR improvements remains
challenging, to say the least.
Network resilience and a new Marine Corps ISR platform illustrate C4ISR investments consistent with a Maritime Pressure strategy. In a 2013 report, the DSB studied the resilience ofmilitary systems against advanced cyber threats.180 The report’s scope did not include all
aspects of the C4ISR problem, but it did cover one important part. The report estimated that,roughly speaking, DoD must spend at least $750–850 million per year to keep progressing
toward achieving information assurance in contested environments. While DoD has adopted
some of the DSB’s recommendations, the continuously evolving nature of information operations suggests that a similarly sized annual investment would still prove beneficial today. By
2024, an investment of that size would total $3.75–4.25 billion in extra spending.
As for Marine ISR, under the Inside-Out concept DoD could equip Marine Expeditionary
Units (MEUs) with new ISR assets, something the Corps has explored actively. Larger UASs
would provide the MEU with airborne early warning and expeditionary ISR support. While
the RQ-21A small tactical UAS performs admirably in its current role, it lacks the range andendurance required to scout far-off enemy targets and optimize operations with Marine F-35B
strike fighters. The MQ-9 Predator B and the experimental “MUX” UAS program ought toperform those tasks better.181 Accelerating development of these systems would cost around$475 million through 2024 according to previous estimates.182 Added to the network resilience
investments above, total additional spending for C4ISR would come to $4.225–4.725 billion
through 2024.
Integrate all bomber aircraft with payloads for offensive maritime missions.
Inside-Out calls for integrating anti-ship missiles onto the bomber fleet—particularly stealthbombers like the B-2 and the future B-21—so these survivable aircraft can strike enemy vessels
in highly contested environments. LRASM represents a logical option since bombers could use
it to attack the highest-priority targets. While no plan exists for integrating LRASM onto the

180 DSB, Task Force Report: Resilient Military Systems and the Advanced Cyber Threat (Washington, DC: DoD, January2013), p. 12.
181

MUX stands for Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Expeditionary. Megan
Eckstein, “Marines Won’t Need a Carrier for High-End Fight with MUX Unmanned System,” USNI News, June 6, 2018.

182 Mackenzie Eaglen, Repair and Rebuild: Balancing New Military Spending for a Three-Theater Strategy (Washington,
DC: American Enterprise Institute, 2017), p. 116.

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B-2, industry officials have agreed that the project appears feasible.183 The project’s cost can be
estimated based on the previous cost of integrating LRASM onto the B-1B bomber. Calculating
the previous B-1B integration cost is tricky. The pertinent documents, which are not publicly
available, present integration costs as a lump sum rather than separating them by platform.
Nevertheless, based on reasonable assumptions about cost sharing and engineering difficulty,
the B-1B cost data suggest that DoD could integrate LRASM onto the B-2 for roughly $200–
300 million in additional spending through 2024.184 The estimate represents a fair projection
both for integrating munitions besides LRASM onto the B-2 and for integrating LRASM onto
bombers besides the B-2.

Coordination
Deepen cooperation with Indo-Pacific allies and partners. Compared to concepts andcapabilities, deepening coordination costs little in budgetary terms. Working with Indo-Pacificallies and partners requires time, sustained leadership attention, and political courage. Those
factors represent opportunity costs, to be sure. But they do not appear as line items in DoD’s
budget.
One option for deepening cooperation that would carry budgetary implications involves
increasing multinational military exercises. Based on the Inside-Out concept, U.S. andallied militaries could conduct new exercises that, for example, demonstrated land-based
strike capabilities within China’s A2/AD envelope. DoD understands only vaguely the costsof its military-to-military engagement activities. As an official in the Cost Assessment andProgram Evaluation office commented, “Nobody understands our exercise portfolio let alonean ‘engagement’ portfolio. . . . It is a terribly fact free debate, including within the building[Pentagon].”185 However, recent controversy over canceling a U.S.-South Korea exercise led
Pentagon officials to state that the exercise cost around $14 million.186 Using that figure as arule of thumb, if DoD added one additional exercise with Indo-Pacific allies and partners every
six months, totaling two new exercises per year—a significant increase given operational andplanning constraints—additional spending through 2024 would reach $140 million.
Reexamine Service roles and missions. Like deepening coordination with allies, reexamining Service roles and missions would primarily require effort and serious self-evaluation,
not money. Still, budgetary costs would enter the picture at some point. History illustrates therange of possibilities. If the undertaking proceeded like the 1948 Key West conference that
helped enshrine the division of labor among the Services, additional spending would include
little more than expenses for preparatory analysis and travel costs for a handful of general andflag officers, plus staff, to go on temporary duty for a week someplace warm. That scenario is

183

Email communication with industry officials, May 9, 2019.

184 Ibid.
185

Email communication with DoD official in CAPE, August 31, 2016.

186 Idrees Ali, “Cost of One of Those ‘Expensive’ U.S.-South Korea Military Exercises? $14 Million,” Reuters, July 6, 2018.

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probably over-optimistic given the high stakes involved with reexamining roles and missions.
On the other hand, if the undertaking proceeded like the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols DoD
Reorganization Act that attempted to suffuse jointness throughout the Pentagon, additional
spending would include years of studies, surveys, and process improvements.187
Given the uncertainty about how a roles and missions reassessment would proceed, alongwith the fractious politics involved, DoD and Congress could follow the standard move of
establishing a blue-ribbon commission. That option entails a calculable cost. To cite a recent
example, the FY 2017 NDAA provided $5 million to fund the National Defense Strategy
Commission.188 Using that figure as a benchmark, reexamining Service roles and missions
through a commission would require $5 million in additional funds through 2024. Any
required DoD analysis activities could be funded from the $20 million reserved for turning
Inside-Out into a joint operational concept (see above).

Conclusion
Longer-term costs for a strategy of Maritime Pressure could greatly exceed the $8–13 billion
outlined here, potentially reaching $30 billion or more based on the precedent offered by the
Army’s modularity initiative discussed above.189 In the most far-reaching case, DoD could
reorganize, reequip, and recombine portions of all four Services to optimize their preparedness for dispersed, distributed operations. Yet that change represents only the tip of theiceberg in terms of transforming how the U.S. military operates in the Western Pacific. This
report does not attempt to estimate the long-term costs of reorganizing the U.S. military given
the uncertainty involved. However, the authors hope that this study, by outlining illustrative
near-term costs, has conveyed a better sense of what it will take to answer the China challenge
in the Western Pacific.

187

For years after Goldwater-Nichols’s passage, DoD’s annual reports to Congress detailed implementation activities.
See DoD, Fiscal Year 1989 Annual Report to the Congress (Washington, DC: DoD, February 18, 1988), pp. 154–156.
Unfortunately, the reports did not include implementation cost figures. DoD’s historical justification books may containthat data, allowing analysts to calculate how much DoD spent both preparing for and implementing Goldwater-Nichols.
One previous study identified the need for such cost research but did not conduct it in any detail. Robert P. Kozloski,“Building the Purple Ford: An Affordable Approach to Jointness,” Naval War College Review 65, no. 4, Autumn 2012, pp.
41–63.

188 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, Public Law 114-328, December 23, 2016, p. 2369.
189 A DoD official independently corroborated longer-term costs exceeding $30 billion in an interview on November 20, 2018.

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CHAPTER 5

Next Steps
As a strategy of deterrence by denial, Maritime Pressure aims to persuade the Chinese leadership that attempting to achieve gains through aggression will cost it dearly and likely fail.
The strategy’s proposed operational concept, Inside-Out, serves as a point of departure for avigorous program of experimentation to inform major shifts in investment and force structure
toward forces and capabilities that can mitigate the challenges facing the U.S. military andimpose challenges upon China and its military.
In summary, DoD should pursue the following actions to begin implementing a strategy of
Maritime Pressure in the Western Pacific:•

Develop this report’s approach into a joint operational concept;•

Experiment with new organizational structures for ground forces in the Pacific;•

Develop sustainment concepts to support a Maritime Pressure strategy;•

Accelerate fielding of mobile, land-based, long-range missile capabilities;•

Build a resilient multi-domain C4ISR architecture and develop and field counter-C4ISR
capabilities;•

Integrate all bomber aircraft with payloads for offensive maritime missions;•

Deepen cooperation with Indo-Pacific allies and partners; and•Reexamine Service roles and missions.

While this report covered a wide range of topics, several issues and questions fell outside its
scope. Future research efforts should explore the following areas in greater detail:•Identifying areas for reducing U.S. military investment in line with new operational
concepts such as Inside-Out (the report makes no specific recommendations on this

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score but suggests at several points that it is worth exploring spending less on legacy
forces unsuited to contested environments);•

Conducting an in-depth theater posture review of the Western Pacific to assess how the
U.S. military might conduct future distributed operations;•

Studying how emerging C2 and battle management architectures and associated technologies could enable new concepts for distributed operations and multi-domain
operations;•

Analyzing potential Chinese reactions to U.S. and coalition strategies; and•Examining the strengths and vulnerabilities of allied and partner militaries vis-à-vis
China.

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LIST OF ACRONYMS
A2/AD

anti-access/area denial

AESA

active electronically scanned array radar

ASBM

anti-ship ballistic missileASCM

anti-ship cruise missileASW

anti-submarine warfare

ATACMS

Army Tactical Missile System

C4ISR

command, control, communications, computers, intelligence,
surveillance, and reconnaissanceCCDcamouflage, concealment, and deception

CCP

Chinese Communist Party

CONUS

continental United States

DFSP

Defense Fuel Support Point

DMO

Distributed Marirtime Operations

DoD

Department of Defense

DSB

Defense Science Board

ECS

East China Sea

EPF

Expeditionary Fast Transport ship

FFG-X

future frigate

GMLRS-ER

Guided Multiple-Launch Rocket System - Extended Range

HHCheadquarters and headquarters company

HIMARS

High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System

I2CEWSIntelligence, Information, Cyber, Electronic Warfare, and Space
battaltion

IAMD

integrated air and missile defense

IBCS

Integrated Air and Misile Defense Battle Command System

IFPC

Indirect Fire Protection Capability

INF

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treatykm

kilometers

LEO

low earth orbit

LPI/LPD

low probabilitity of intercept/detection

LRASM

Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile

MDC2

Multi-Domain Command and Control

MDO

Multi-Domain Operations

MEF

Marine Expeditionary Force

MEU

Marine Expeditionary Unit

MOC

Marine Corps Operating Concept

MSHORADmaneuver short-range air defense

nm

nautical miles

NPDG

National Defense Program Guidelines

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NSM

Naval Strike Missile

PLA

People's Liberation Army

PLAAF

People's Liberation Army Air Force

PLAN

People's Liberation Army Navy

PNA

Philippine NavyPrSM

Precision Strike Missile

RAAF

Royal Australian Air ForceRFradio frequency

RIMPACRim of the Pacific Exercise

SCS

South China Sea

SHORAD

short-range air defense

SLRC

Strategic Long-Range Cannon

UAS

unmanned areial system

UUV

unmanned underwater vehicle

VLS

Vertical Launch System

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