NEWS FROM 

THE FRONT

January 2018

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Mr. Michael S. Hartmayer, Chief, Strategic Analysis Branch, Center for 

Army Lessons Learned

Setting the Theater

in the Pacific

Lessons and Best Practices
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News from the Front:

Setting the Theater in the Pacific

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Setting the Theater in the Pacific

Setting the theater is a geographic combatant command responsibility in which the 

theater army plays a major role. The purpose of this document is to show how U.S. 

Army Pacific (USARPAC) postured land domain capabilities, particularly those that fall 

under mission command, to set the theater and contribute to security and stability in the 

Pacific region. Written for public release, the insights offered in this document are based 

on previous collections and therefore provide a snapshot in time. As the situation 

evolves in this theater, so do the support requirements for specific operation plans, 

concept plans, and other requirements established in the geographic combatant 

commander’s (GCC’s) theater campaign plan. Therefore, this document merely 

provides a framework for staff to consider as they ponder and refine their own plans.

USARPAC, as U.S. Pacific Command’s (USPACOM) Army Service Component

Command (ASCC), postures and prepares Army forces to the geographic combatant 

command, sustains and protects those forces in the theater, supports the development 

of an integrated joint force across domains, and builds military relationships that 

develop partner defense capacity in order to contribute to a stable and secure Pacific 

Command area of responsibility. Since 1898, the U.S. Army has maintained a presence 

in the Pacific dating back to the Spanish-American War , when American Soldiers 

consolidated the United States Navy’s victory in the Battle of Manila Bay. Today, 

Pacific operations are a cornerstone of U.S. national security. The region 

encompasses approximately half the earth's surface and is home to the world's largest 

democracy, the largest trading region, three of the largest economies, and six of the 

most populous nations. The region is also the world's most disaster-prone, with 

dangers from volcanoes, tsunamis, and earthquakes along the so-called “Ring of Fire.” 

As a result of these facts and the region’s dynamic security environment, President 

Barack Obama focused national assets and attention to this strategic and challenging 

region during the “Pacific Pivot” in 2012.

Even with changing missions and evolving adjustments to force structure,

USARPAC's enduring constant has been its regional partnerships and

relationships. These relationships are enhanced through the employment

of joint and expeditionary capabilities. USARPAC has implemented new

initiatives to set the theater, streamline and operationalize command

relationships within the USARPAC area of responsibility (AOR), and build

ties with regional armies and land domain stakeholders

"We will always be ready to fight today, and we will always prepare to fight tomorrow."

General Mark A. Milley

U.S. Army Chief of Staff
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The posturing of land domain capabilities is needed to set the theater to enable security 

and stability in the Pacific region. A theater is “set” when it has the necessary 

capabilities and agreements in place to support the combatant commander’s regional 

operations and missions. These missions in the USPACOM AOR could include 

response to natural disasters, contingency operations, or theater security cooperation 

engagements. A set theater requires building partnerships with regional armies and 

interested parties, unified action partners, and the U.S. joint forces community. A set 

theater ultimately serves as the basis for stability and security across the AOR and is 

the keystone of USARPAC's theater strategy. Success in this critical operating 

environment poses a significant challenge. Importantly, theater posture (and a set 

theater) must be firmly grounded in a USARPAC strategy that supports the Guidance 

for Employment of the Force (GEF), the Joint Strategic Capabilities Plan, the USARPAC 

Campaign Plan, and the Army Campaign Plan. From this guidance and support, 

USARPAC elements will be able to provide land component resources to the PACOM 

commander in order to facilitate successful operations in their AOR. 

Role of the ASCC

As the USPACOM commander seeks to set the theater and U.S. forces shift their focus 

and resources to the Pacific, it is important to understand the role of the ASCC and its 

contribution to theater security cooperation and theater posture planning. The Army’s 

ability to prevail in ground operations provides the PACOM commander with the 

decisive ability to impose American strategy on hostile actors. Although the United 

States Navy (USN) and United States Air Force (USAF) provide the ability to 

geographically contain threats in the region and are critical to power projection, Army 

and U. S. Marine Corps (USMC) elements are the components necessary to force 

complete acquiescence to the United States / international coalitions’ policy. To be 

successful in this environment requires the theater army (ASCC) to set the theater and 

assist Army forces into the fight. An army corps designated as a Combined/Joint Task 

Force (C/JTF), Combined/Joint Forces Land Component Command (C/JFLCC), Army 

forces (ARFOR), will integrate Army, Marine Corps, and coalition land power throughout 

each phase of a campaign. Divisions maneuver to destroy enemy ground forces, seize 

and exploit operationally significant objectives, and match decisive action to ground 

conditions. For the corps and divisions to be successful, the theater army commander 

must set the conditions for the effective use of this land power.

Importantly, and in order to gain access and understanding of the operational 

environment (OE), the theater army and its theater-assigned Army forces support the 

combatant commander’s theater engagement plans and security cooperation. The 

theater army and its assigned forces set the theater and the joint operations area (JOA) 

for the employment of Army forces – for both contingencies and campaigns. To achieve 

all this, the theater army must anticipate, plan, request, receive, train, sustain, and 

support redeployment of land power within its AOR and one or more JOAs when 

established.
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Security Cooperation

This section illuminates some of the considerations and challenges the ASCC, the 

Army’s main effort for security cooperation around the globe, faces as we begin to 

execute this new guidance. 

The routine military and interagency security cooperation activities that the USARPAC 

performs to deter potential adversaries and solidify our relationships with allies and 

partners can be described as shaping activities. In the Pacific, shaping the security 

environment is a cost-effective way to ensure peace and stability, and to prevent 

conflict. United States relationships with international partners in this critical AOR are 

essential to protecting U.S. and allies’ national security interests. By helping to build the 

capacity and enhance the interoperability capability of our partners, the U.S. Army 

contributes to a more secure world.

The GEF directs military departments and defense agencies to develop integrated 

campaign support plans for the execution of steady-state shaping activities. Therefore, 

the USARPAC campaign support plan focuses on activities that promote the 

achievement of combatant command objectives, and contribute to campaign and GEF 

regional, functional and global end states. USARPAC planners must be able to 

effectively plan, execute, and assess security cooperation activities in campaigns and 

operations that are consistent with Department of Defense security cooperation policy to 

achieve combatant command objectives. 

USARPAC’s security cooperation activities, such as exercises like Yama Sakura and 

Pacific Pathways, provide additional opportunities to enhance the Army’s overall 

readiness, training, and leader development, and build interoperability with partner 

armies. This supports the current U.S. Army Chief of Staff (CSA) strategic priorities that 

shape and set theaters for regional commanders to influence the security environment, 

build trust, and develop relationships through multilateral exercises, mil-to-mil 

engagements, coalition training, and other opportunities. 

Activities in the shape phase help set conditions for successful theater operations.

They are designed to dissuade or deter adversaries, assure friends, and set conditions

for contingency plans. Shape activities are generally conducted as part of military

engagement and security cooperation. Joint and multinational operations and various

interagency activities occur routinely during the shape phase. Shape activities are

executed continuously with the intent of enhancing international legitimacy and gaining

multinational cooperation by shaping perceptions and influencing adversaries‘ and

allies‘ behavior, developing allied and friendly military capabilities for self-defense and

multinational operations, improving information exchange and intelligence sharing,

providing U.S. forces with peacetime and contingency access, and mitigating

conditions that could lead to a crisis.

FM-3-0 Operations
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Shaping the OE is a relationship-based and human focused endeavor. USARPAC 

support to USPACOM provides landpower capabilities that develop an understanding of 

the OE, while exporting professionalism, leadership, and experience that contribute to 

partner capacity and trust building. The forces assigned to USARPAC further enhance 

security cooperation by providing deployable and scalable regionally-focused Army 

forces in direct support of geographic and functional combatant commands and joint 

priorities. Another security cooperation enabler is the National Guard’s State 

Partnership Program.

Security cooperation is a core competency that the U.S. Army must sustain to ensure 

strategic success in the operating environment. Theater Army strategy and the 

execution of security cooperation activities in support of the geographic combatant 

commanders have taken on new significance with the CSA’s regionally engaged, 

globally responsive guidance. The fairly recent Presidential Policy Directive on Security 

Sector Assistance (PPD23, Security Section Assistance, 05APR2013) demonstrates 

that the Army is conceptually on track regarding the goals and guidelines for U.S. 

Security Sector Assistance. The CSA’s direction for Army security focuses on 

engagements with our partners to foster mutual understanding through mil-to-mil 

contacts, and helping partners to build the capacity to defend themselves. Security 

cooperation has a threefold purpose: build partner capacity to prevent conflict; shape 

the international security environment while maintaining a stabilizing presence; and 

establish strategic relationships that are critical for winning the peace. The security 

cooperation challenge for ASCCs will be in connecting ends and ways to means to build 

partner capacity in a manner consistent with national and military strategy. 

The U.S. Army has had some major successes in security cooperation over the years. 

The most significant example is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 

Europe. Since 1949, NATO focused security cooperation has brought about enormous 

change to Europe and its security sector. Security cooperation activities were initially 

focused on deterring the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR) and Warsaw Pact. 

The operational and strategic effects of security cooperation engagements

depend on the expertise of the Army personnel who conduct it. Failure to

understand the nuances involved can lead to poor execution, planning, or

assessment of Army SC efforts. The results can hinder interagency cooperation,

damage bilateral or multilateral relationships, and unknowingly violate U.S. Code.

CALL 16-09 Security Cooperation Bulletin

Talisman Saber, Yama Sakura, Ulchi Focus Guardian, Balikitan, Cobra Gold and 

the Pacific Pathways innovation are effective security cooperation activities

conducted with our Pacific partners that contribute to increased regional security.
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After the collapse of the USSR, security cooperation was a significant factor in 

reintegrating Europe. International Security Assistance Force’s (ISAF) participation and 

capability in Afghanistan was greatly aided by NATO Standardization Agreements

(STANAGS). While the same type of effort and results may not be completely 

replicated in the Pacific, partners and organizations like ABCANZ (America, Britain, 

Canada, Australia, New Zealand) are critically important to create, nurture and maintain. 

Security cooperation activities and exercises with our Pacific treaty allies such as 

Talisman Saber, Yama Sakura, Ulchi Focus Guardian, Balikitan and Cobra Gold, 

connected to the Pacific Pathways innovation, have been very effective in increasing 

regional security. In 2014, GEN Vincent K. Brooks, USARPAC Commander, established

Pacific Pathways, the name for an improved operational concept that links these once

individually executed activities throughout the Pacific region into a single operation

under a corps-level headquarters. As a result, the USARPAC commander has gained

flexibility in supporting the USPACOM commander’s engagement strategy and reduced

response times in the event of a regional crises.

In the USARPAC AOR, the Republic of Korea (ROK) is a notable example of successful 

security cooperation. The United States has helped the ROK in deterring North Korean 

aggression since 1953. The ROK and U.S. Armies are very closely linked in training 

and regularly exercise the United States’ ability to rapidly reinforce the peninsula in case 

of conflict. Korean Augmentation to the United States Army (KATUSA) has reduced 

required U.S. troop strength on the peninsula and spread understanding of both 

cultures. In addition, standard agreements on items such as ammunition types, war 

plans, and equipment have increased both nations’ military readiness.

While the United States’ interaction with Korea is often characterized by the many 

success stories, there have been numerous other successes in recent years. Japan’s 

government has recently increased authorization for increased defense spending, with 

the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force modernizing several of its units with U.S. / 

NATO compatible equipment. Mongolia is another example, with this geographically 

significant nation developing the capability to support U.S. efforts in Iraq and 

Afghanistan. Finally, cooperation with traditional allies such as Australia and New 

Zealand in PACOM has continued to demonstrate American capabilities in the region. 

Pacific Pathways

A scalable element of 600 -1100 Soldiers forming an Infantry Task Force, plus

associated enablers from support units, often including Army aircraft and other

capabilities.

Pacific Pathways Provides:

 Cooperative and persistent engagement with our Partners

 An Army Force comprised of a robust, versatile and deployed force west of the

international date line
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As a whole, these examples demonstrate how USARPAC can continue to set the 

conditions for success in future conflicts. Joint / combined exercises, combined with 

standardization agreements and common supply choices, all serve to aid ability to “fight 

tonight” for the Army in particular and the joint force as a whole. 

Theater Posture

Theater posture is almost as important as security cooperation plans for shaping the 

Army’s efforts in the Pacific. Importantly, USARPAC planners understand that theater 

campaign plans (TCP) are not synonymous with theater security cooperation plans. 

Theater posture is a significant aspect of a combatant commander’s TCP development. 

The Theater Posture Plan (TPP) is an annex of the TCP. The TPP is a detailed plan of 

forces, footprint and agreements which enable the GCC to operate and if necessary, 

project force into the theater. Of the components, the Army’s input into the TPP is 

arguably the most critical. To assist with this, the commander has a number of tools 

available to assist in gaining access to critical resources through the Embassy and 

Country Team; building partnership capacity programs; and U.S. Army National Guard 

State Partnership Program (SPP). 

USARPAC, Army and joint force commanders will require airfields, ports and facilities 

for terminal operations and reception, staging, onward-movement and integration 

(RSOI). The location and positioning of cooperative security locations and forward 

operating stations in the USARPAC AOR is important to the Theater Army’s success in 

setting the theater. In general, TCPs necessarily have a large security cooperationrelated component. However, they should also address unit posture, ongoing combat 

operations where applicable, and known flashpoints throughout a combatant command. 

These generally comprise the Phase 0 component of the combatant command’s 

contingency planning and are the main elements of “setting the theater.” 

The ways PACOM has identified to shape the theater are building strong relationships 

(Security Cooperation); assured presence (posture); and strategic communication. 

USARPAC’s Theater Campaign Support Plan is nested in USPACOM’s TCP. 

USARPAC planners understand that the actions and objectives of operations conducted 

in one part of the Pacific will likely affect others. Therefore, it will be necessary to 

deconflict and balance activities to ensure the resources devoted to one campaign do 

not adversely affect others both concurrent and planned. Failure to nest these efforts,

or viewing them as distinct and separate areas of planning, risk making posture 

activities counterproductive. In turn, this may create adverse impacts at both the 

operational and strategic levels of war.

Importantly, USARPAC’s input to USPACOM lays out the resources it has available. 

This is crucial because the USPACOM concept developed for the TCP must consider 

USARPAC’s supply and mobility requirements for theater posture to be fully effective. 

Posture not only has a direct effect on how forces can be employed and supported in 
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the Pacific, but may affect other geographic combatant commanders as well. USARPAC 

planners must consider that posture decisions may also alter the requirement for certain 

kinds of forces (e.g., naval assets to escort increased sealift). 

Proper posture planning must use the GEF and the Joint Strategic Capabilities Plan

(JSCP) to focus its support of the theater strategy. This requires a thorough review of 

both PACOM and USARPAC’s TCPs, with planners applying contingency analysis to 

most likely scenarios in theater. Addressing what must be done to get from the baseline 

to the objective requires theater army planners to know the full array of resources 

available not only to USARPAC, but also to PACOM’s joint providers as a whole. To 

cite one example, international partners’ willingness to provide ground forces to the 

USARPAC plan must be balanced with their ability to move those forces to a given 

crisis point.

The challenges USAPAC faces associated with supporting USPACOM in a very 

complex theater are many. The region has been a cornerstone of U.S. national 

interests and encompasses a huge swath of the planet. Because of the region’s 

dynamic security environment, the U.S. is focusing more and more national assets and 

attention to this strategic and challenging region. USARPAC’s challenge going forward 

will be how to best posture the Army for success as part of a joint or combined 

warfighting force.
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