One on one with US Army Pacific Command chief Gen. Charles Flynn

The Army has spent the last year increasing the complexity and breadth of its exercises in the Pacific while trying out new capabilities that will soon be a part of formations in the theater. Relationships with Pacific nations have grown amid continuing tensions with China, and U.S. Army Pacific chief Gen. Charles Flynn has staked out a role for land forces in a region associated primarily with air and naval power.

Defense News sat down with Flynn prior to the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference. Here are edited excerpts of the conversation.

We recently finished Orient Shield and had the highest level of interoperability with the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. Of course, that’s an army-to-army exercise, but for the first year, we had units from the Australian Army participating in that in Japan, so that’s a step change, adding a third country, if you will, to it.

The Mid-Range Capability missile system was sent to the Philippines , and it showed the value of training with our Philippine Army counterparts. We saw the assurance and deterrence that comes from that capability.

And then in the Arctic, you saw the operation that the 11th Airborne Division just conducted out in the Aleutians. But maybe more importantly was their last [Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center] rotation. They had 11 countries. They did a number of air assaults up there. One of them was a combined air assault with a Canadian aircraft. There was a 15-ship air assault, about 20 degrees below zero.

Those are just some highlights between Alaska, the Philippines, Japan and Australia, using the first island chain and extending all the way down past Papua New Guinea onto the Australian continent.

I know there’s a lot of discussion out there about the timing and location, but I guess the point I’m going to make is that, for the time being, the MRC is going to remain in the Philippines, and that is at the request of the Philippine government and military. I think it’s an important assurance measure for our treaty ally there and the training that we’re doing on a system like that, because they obviously are interested in systems like that, but they’re also interested in other systems that they purchased, like the BrahMos [cruise missile] from India.

Maybe the most important part of all of this is what we’re really doing with the Philippine army and the Philippine military, which is to try to help develop and train forces in support of their territorial defense concept.

We can get wrapped on the MRC, but as you are aware, this is one of many new and coming Army land-based, long-range precision fires platforms. … I think you know that we are moving rather quickly with [the Precision Strike Missile] on the HIMARS platform. We fired the PrSM off of Palau earlier this year. … These are demonstrations of the capabilities that land forces can provide from the land on being able to do sea-control, sea-denial, territorial defense and influence operations in the air littorals and the maritime littorals.

The operating environment out here is extraordinary and challenging — the distances, the ranges involved, the conditions of weather, jungle, archipelagos, urban, extreme-cold weather, mountainous. I mean, you name it, you have it. And it’s extreme, like, where the 11th Airborne Division was just training in India. And then where we’re operating in the Philippines, it’s a totally different set of conditions. I think one of the challenges for commanders is the range of the operational environment and conditions that you have to conduct operations in.

The second point I’d make on this is that, in many ways, Army capabilities underpin joint operations, and this is where the interdependencies of the joint force come together. And I just believe that the Pacific is the best laboratory for learning. You have to test these new capabilities forward, and they have to be part of our campaigning effort out here. And the demands on the Army forces in this theater, they’re unique. We bring enabling capabilities from deep sensing to terrestrial collection, integrated air and missile defense, Army watercraft systems, sustainment. And then we already talked about long-range precision fires in the maritime environment.

The last point I’ll end on is when you are conducting experiments and tests as part of your operations and as part of your campaigning effort, there is a deterrent value that you gain from that because you keep your opponents guessing. And you’re also working with your partners and allies on new capabilities, new technologies, new organizations, and they learn from doing that with at least U.S. Army Pacific. That’s an enormously valuable contribution to deterrence and assurance across this region.

They’re far improved and they’re increasing, and why is that important? Because it really does three things: It improves our interoperability and our confidence as a multinational team. It improves our combined and joint capabilities because we’re training as a joint and combined and multinational force. And then the third is it denies key terrain, and it denies human terrain and physical terrain by the land power network.

That land power network is the strategic architecture that binds this region together. Let me give you a couple of concrete examples. In 2021, Garuda Shield [in Indonesia] was an army-to-army exercise. Now, Super Garuda Shield is a multinational and joint exercise, and it averages somewhere between 10 and 12 countries participating in it every year. I already mentioned Orient Shield. That’s one that was army-to-army, now it’s three countries. I haven’t mentioned Yama Sakura in Japan. That’s four countries: Japan, Philippines, Australia and United States.

Talisman Saber [in Australia], just about 10 years ago, was army-to-army. Now it’s 15 countries and 30,000 forces contributing to it. Those are real examples of our relationships that manifest themselves into real assurance and deterrence. Denying human terrain and physical terrain by our presence is the great counterweight that we have to the threats that are facing us each day out here.

The idea really has four foundational warfighting functions or systems: command and control, protection, collection, and sustainment.

In the area of sustainment we’re working on some Joint Theater Distribution Centers, and those range in places from Guam to new locations or existing locations, potentially putting levels of material in Japan. There’s locations in the Philippines and Australia, we’re putting some additional stock levels in Guam. Then, of course, we’re working on our Army Prepositioned Stock-Afloat and distributing some of that equipment in new locations.

We have a new composite watercraft company that is being built and stationed in Japan. We’ve already had our forward-positioned watercraft stocks in Yokohama North Dock in Tokyo Harbor. We are also taking commodities with us and dropping them in locations where we don’t have to drag that back and forth: consumables like water, food, medical supplies, engineering equipment, things that we use during exercises and whatnot.

We have improved our terrestrial collection capabilities. We are improving our ability to conduct processing, exploitation and distribution of intelligence signals using all-source intelligence with our PED center here in Hawaii. We’re doing a lot of things with our integrated air and missile defense capabilities, starting in Guam, but also deploying those kinds of capabilities throughout the region when we’re on exercise.

Then, in the area of command and control, the Army has a really deep magazine well of command-and-control nodes that can go out into various locations and integrate small-scale and large, complex operations for the joint and multinational force.

I think we’ve done some really good work on what’s called exercise-related construction. So if we’re out on an exercise, we’re using our engineers but also host-nation engineers to do things like building roads, extending runways, improving facilities from ranges that we use and warehouse locations that we co-use with our host nation.

I would categorize that as work in the protection lane, because it’s a form of mobility and counter mobility and protection for us.

I’m not going to get ahead of the Army secretary, but I do think that what we’re doing between Project Convergence and the way we’re operating out here, working on creative, innovative and new ways to distribute equipment, sets and commodities, we need to do that as part of the joint force. When you think about agile combat employment, distributed maritime operations, expeditionary, advanced basing -- you know, the three other service concepts -- I think it’s our responsibility out here to reduce the vulnerabilities and look for creative ways to distribute our material support.

And we work with industry. I think there’s some really interesting capabilities and technologies, from unmanned vessels to underwater storage. The Pacific is a laboratory for learning and having those capabilities out here and for us to find creative ways to do that with our multinational partners is really important.

Jen Judson is an award-winning journalist covering land warfare for Defense News. She has also worked for Politico and Inside Defense. She holds a Master of Science degree in journalism from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College.

过去一年，美国陆军不断提升在太平洋地区的演习的复杂性和广度，同时也在测试即将应用于该地区作战部队的新能力。在与中国持续紧张关系的背景下，美国与太平洋国家的关系日益密切。美国陆军太平洋司令部司令查尔斯·弗林将军已明确了陆军在该地区（该地区主要由空军和海军力量主导）的作用。

在美军协会年会召开前，《防务新闻》对弗林进行了采访。以下是经过编辑的采访节选。

我们最近完成了“东方之盾”演习，并与日本自卫队实现了最高级别的互操作性。当然，这是一项军队间的联合演习，但今年是首次有澳大利亚陆军部队在日本参与，这算是一个重大变革，相当于引入了第三个国家。

中程导弹系统已交付菲律宾，这体现了与菲律宾陆军同行进行联合训练的价值。我们看到了这种能力所带来的安全保障和威慑力。

然后，在北极地区，你们看到了第11空降师在阿留申群岛的行动。但或许更重要的是他们最近一次在太平洋联合多国战备中心的轮换部署。他们与11个国家合作，在那里进行了多次空中突击。其中一次是与加拿大飞机联合进行的空中突击。那是一次由15架飞机参与的空中突击行动，当时气温大约在零下20度。

以上只是阿拉斯加、菲律宾、日本和澳大利亚之间的一些亮点，利用第一岛链一直延伸到巴布亚新几内亚，直至澳大利亚大陆。

我知道外界对时间和地点有很多讨论，但我重点想说的是，目前多用途反应堆（MRC）仍将留在菲律宾，这是应菲律宾政府和军方的要求。我认为这对我们在菲律宾的条约盟友来说是一项重要的保证措施，也是为了确保我们正在进行的此类系统培训，因为他们显然对这类系统感兴趣，同时也对他们购买的其他系统感兴趣，例如从印度购买的布拉莫斯巡航导弹。

或许这一切中最重要的部分是我们真正与菲律宾军队和菲律宾军方合作的内容，那就是努力帮助他们发展和训练部队，以支持他们的领土防御理念。

我们可以就多方讨论，但正如您所知，这只是陆军众多新型陆基远程精确火力平台之一。……我想您也知道，我们在HIMARS平台上快速推进精确打击导弹（PrSM）的研发。今年早些时候，我们在帕劳附近海域试射了PrSM。……这些演示展现了陆军部队在近海和近海海域执行海上控制、海上拒止、领土防御和影响力行动的能力。

这里的作战环境非同寻常，充满挑战——距离遥远，作战范围广阔，天气状况恶劣，丛林、群岛、城市、极寒天气、山区，应有尽有。简直是极端环境，比如，第11空降师刚刚在印度进行过训练，而我们现在在菲律宾作战，情况又截然不同。我认为指挥官面临的挑战之一就是作战环境和条件的多样性，他们必须在这些不同的环境下开展行动。

关于这一点，我想提出的第二点是，在很多方面，陆军的能力支撑着联合行动，而这正是联合部队相互依存之处。我认为太平洋是最佳的学习试验场。你必须在前线检验这些新能力，它们必须成为我们在这里作战行动的一部分。在这个战区，陆军部队面临的需求是独一无二的。我们带来了从深空探测到地面情报收集、一体化防空反导、陆军舰艇系统和后勤保障等一系列关键能力。此外，我们之前也讨论过海上环境下的远程精确火力打击。

最后我想强调一点，在作战行动和军事行动中开展实验和测试，能够起到威慑作用，因为这会让对手摸不透你的意图。同时，你还能与伙伴和盟友合作，共同研发新的能力、技术和组织架构，他们也能从中学习，至少美国太平洋陆军可以从中受益。这对于整个地区的威慑和保障都具有极其重要的价值。

它们的性能已大幅提升，并且还在不断增强，这为什么重要？因为它确实能带来三方面的好处：首先，它提高了我们作为多国部队的互操作性和信心；其次，它提升了我们的联合作战能力，因为我们正在以联合、协同和多国部队的形式进行训练；第三，它通过陆上力量网络封锁了关键地形，包括人员和物理地形。

这种陆上力量网络是维系该地区的战略架构。我举几个具体的例子。2021年，印尼的“鹰狮盾”演习是军队间的联合演习。如今，“超级鹰狮盾”演习已发展成为多国联合演习，每年平均有10到12个国家参加。我之前提到过“东方盾”演习，它最初也是军队间的联合演习，现在则有三个国家参与。我还没提到在日本举行的“山樱”演习，这次有四个国家参加：日本、菲律宾、澳大利亚和美国。

大约十年前，在澳大利亚举行的“护身军刀”演习还只是军队之间的演习。如今，已有15个国家和3万名士兵参与其中。这些都是我们相互合作，最终转化为切实保障和威慑的真实例证。通过我们的存在来封锁人为和自然地形，是我们应对每天面临的威胁的有力武器。

该理念实际上包含四个基本的作战功能或系统：指挥与控制、保护、情报收集和保障。

在后勤保障方面，我们正在筹建一些联合战区配送中心，这些中心分布在关岛等地以及一些新建或现有地点，并有可能在日本部署一定数量的物资。我们在菲律宾和澳大利亚也设有配送中心，并在关岛增设了一些库存。当然，我们也在推进陆军海上预置物资计划，并将部分装备分发到新的地点。

我们正在日本建造并部署一支新的复合型水上舰艇部队。我们的前沿部署舰艇已经停泊在东京港的横滨北码头。我们还将物资运送到指定地点，这样就无需来回拖运：例如水、食物、医疗用品、工程设备、演习用品等等。

我们提升了陆地情报收集能力。我们正在利用位于夏威夷的PED中心，提升利用全源情报进行情报信号处理、利用和分发的能力。我们正在全面提升综合防空和导弹防御能力，首先在关岛展开，然后在演习期间将这些能力部署到整个地区。

然后，在指挥控制领域，陆军拥有非常深厚的指挥控制节点储备，可以部署到各个地点，整合小规模和大规模、复杂的联合及多国部队作战行动。

我认为我们在所谓的演习相关建设方面做得非常出色。例如，当我们进行演习时，我们会利用我们自己的工程师以及东道国的工程师来进行诸如修建道路、延长跑道、改善我们使用的靶场设施以及与东道国共同使用的仓库等工作。

我会将其归类为保护领域的工作，因为它对我们来说是一种机动、反机动和保护的形式。

我不想抢在陆军部长前面发言，但我认为，我们正在开展的“融合项目”以及我们在这里的实际行动，包括探索创新、新颖的装备、物资和物资分发方式，都需要作为联合部队的一部分来开展。想想敏捷作战部署、分布式海上行动、远征作战、前沿基地部署——也就是其他三个军种概念——我认为我们有责任降低脆弱性，并寻找创新的方式来分发我们的物资支援。

我们与业界合作。我认为有很多非常有趣的能力和技术，从无人船到水下存储。太平洋是一个学习的实验室，拥有这些能力，并与我们的多国合作伙伴一起找到创造性的方法来实现这些能力，这一点至关重要。

珍·贾德森是一位屡获殊荣的记者，为《防务新闻》报道陆地战争。她也曾为《政治报》和《内幕防务》工作。她拥有波士顿大学新闻学硕士学位和凯尼恩学院文学学士学位。