{"id":10900,"date":"2026-05-05T14:57:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T14:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/this-is-how-we-prevail-in-the-pacific-us-allies-train-to-repel-amphibious-assault\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T14:57:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T14:57:18","slug":"this-is-how-we-prevail-in-the-pacific-us-allies-train-to-repel-amphibious-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/this-is-how-we-prevail-in-the-pacific-us-allies-train-to-repel-amphibious-assault\/","title":{"rendered":"‘This is how we prevail in the Pacific’: US, allies train to repel amphibious assault"},"content":{"rendered":"
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LAOAG, Philippines<\/strong>\u2014Just off the windswept beach, a camouflage-painted unmanned vessel reminiscent of a Chinese amphibious fighting vehicle advanced through the sapphire waters of the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

Drones buzzed ahead as American, Filipino, and Japanese soldiers waited nearby. Then two rockets whooshed from HIMARS launchers hidden in the sand dunes, heading out to target simulated enemy warships in deep water. The battle had begun.<\/p>\n

This counter-landing live-fire training, performed less than 400 miles from the southern tip of Taiwan as part of the annual Balikatan military exercise, \u201cis where you get to really prove if you can do what you say you\u2019re going to do,\u201d Maj. Gen. James Bartholomees, commander of the U.S. Army\u2019s 25th Infantry Division, told a small group of journalists.<\/p>\n

One of the things the 25th ID has said it will do is \u201csynchronize sensing through fires in a coordinated manner against multiple adversaries,\u201d Bartholomees said, from the brigade level to battalions, \u201cdown to companies, down to platoons, down to squads, into the individual foxhole.\u201d But \u201cthe synchronization is not real until you can actually prove it with live munitions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the modernization of our Army. This is the modernization of joint forces. This is how we prevail in the Pacific under Adm. [Samuel] Paparo\u2019s vision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, Paparo, the leader of Indo-Pacific Command,\u00a0told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the \u201cstrategy is clear: We must deny China the ability to achieve its objectives through military aggression while strengthening the network of alliances and partnerships that constitutes our greatest asymmetric advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cCredible, prompt and sustained combat power, visible across the Indo-Pacific region, will deter acts of military aggression that destabilize the region, undermine security and stability, and threaten the security, freedom, and prosperity of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here at La Paz Sand Dunes, the division\u2019s artillery battalion worked in a small tactical operations center out of sight of enemy forces, using data from a Stalker long-range reconnaissance drone, multiple short- and medium-range loitering aerial drones, and unmanned surface vessels to coordinate fires from the battalion\u2019s new HIMARS, one-way attack drones, 105-millimeter artillery, and more on targets in the air, on the sand, and in the water.<\/p>\n

At the beach, automatic weapons and rifles peppered the shallows while longer-range munitions sent sprays of sea water and billowing gray smoke high into the air. Buzzing drones in orange and neon green, built in-house by the unit\u2019s Lightning Lab, added to the cacophony as they drew incoming fire. Further out at sea, Apache helicopters and Navy and Air Force assets hunted robotic boats.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you think of the Army, you think of it as the land-based component. But here in the Pacific theater, we don\u2019t have that luxury,\u201d Col. Daniel Von Benken, the commander of 25th Infantry Division Artillery, told Defense One<\/em>. \u201cThe Army has to compete and win in both environments, or help another service compete and win in another environment. So \u2018maritime deep battle\u2019 is trying to figure out, where do our echelons connect with joint services like the Navy and Marines? Where does it connect with our partner forces on the flanks, and how can we echelon onto a direct fire conflict? So what we’ll generally try to do is echelon our fires into the maritime environment and then shape an enemy to a favorable force calculus, onto a beach where we finish the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bartholomees called the Army \u201cabsolutely essential to the joint force in the Pacific.\u201d He invoked the activation of the division just three months before Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941, saying that since then, \u201cwe prepared to fight on islands, to lead from islands and to fight forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s exercise in repelling a force invading from the sea showed \u201cour ability not only to control and fight through land with our allies and partners, but also to have effects and capability in all domains,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Von Benken noted that many of the weapons and drones used this year were new to the division since last year\u2019s Balikatan, making the exercise a key experiment as the unit works to determine what is the \u201cbest solution in terms of massing fires.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pace of change can be breathtaking, but Von Benken said his focus is \u201creally balancing the modernization piece with your core function, the core function at the end of the day being: Are you good at artillery? Are you good at infantry? Are you good at the combined arms fight? And if you never lose sight of that, the modernization won\u2019t overwhelm you. It won\u2019t make you feel like you\u2019re off track. Bring yourself back to the center every time. \u2018Can I shoot farther? Can I see faster? Can I sense faster?\u2019 If the answer to that is \u2018yes,\u2019 put it back together with your core competency and move forward.\u201d\n\n<\/svg><\/p>\n<\/div>\n