The US Army rapidly deployed weapons and soldiers out to the far tip of Alaska in a sudden show of force.
The force projection event, which began this week in the North Pacific, sends a message to American adversaries at a time when key rivals Russia and China are conducting joint naval drills in the Pacific.
In an exclusive interview with Business Insider, the Army’s 11th Airborne Division commander Maj. Gen. Joseph Hilbert said that the event demonstrates US Army Pacific’s ability to move assets adeptly and with little notice into even the most remote locations.
“The Army looks at us to be Arctic experts,” Hilbert said, and as a part of US Army Pacific,”we’ve got to be ready to operate in the region as a part of the land power there.”
For the event, the 11th Airborne Division pulled together a range of capabilities from across the US Army, including a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System platoon from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington, communications equipment from Hawaii, and a target acquisition radar and an infantry security force from the 11th Airborne Division. The number of soldiers deployed was around 130 for this exercise.
The Alaska Air National Guard and the Air Force transported the various weapons and assets.
“Bringing these forces together,” Hilbert explained, “demonstrates to any adversary that we can deploy anywhere with little notice. We can suddenly create a dilemma,” he said, “and we can do that with significant firepower, and we can do it as a joint force.”
Hilbert said the deployment of the HIMARS speaks to the importance of long-range fires in force projection and deterrence, something that’s also been evident in the war in Ukraine.
The exercise, which will continue into next week, is also highly visible to US friends and foes alike. There is a lot of discussion around the need to conceal the signatures of forces and weapons and hide them within the electromagnetic spectrum. That wasn’t done here, as the event was purposefully overt. The Army wasn’t hiding this.
The intended aim was to show that these capabilities are readily deployable, even in unexpected places. It’s also a signal of readiness to US allies and partners, Hilbert said.
The Army exercise is being carried out in the Aleutian Islands, an island chain extending from Alaska’s southernmost edge out into the Bering Sea and Northern Pacific Ocean. More specifically, the exercise is being held on Shemya Island.
Alaska is a large, complex, and challenging environment that requires soldiers to develop various Arctic warfare skills.
11th Airborne Division soldiers previously told BI that the difficulties of fighting in the unforgiving Arctic prompt them to adapt and innovate in real time. Soldiers regularly train and carry out exercises across the state and in the broader region, remaining flexible for different situations.
US Army Pacific has made combat in the Arctic a major priority, and 11th Airborne forces work with the larger network — both USARPAC and US Pacific allies and partners — to maintain readiness.
At the US Army Pacific’s Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness exercise in Alaska in February, USARPAC commander Gen. Charles A. Flynn told BI that amid an increase in “aggressive, insidious” moves from China and other adversaries in the Indo-Pacific region, US allies and partners were working closer with the US Army on strengthening ground forces and their connections.
The latest exercise comes amid Russia’s largest naval drills since the Cold War, stretching across the Pacific, Mediterranean Sea, and Arctic Ocean to test combat readiness.
The large exercise involves over 400 ships, submarines, and support vessels, along with air assets and well over 90,000 troops, the Kremlin said earlier this week.
Prior to the launch of the drills, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the US of provoking “an arms race” and “disregarding the security interests of its European and Asian allies” by engaging in military action in the Indo-Pacific region.
“This lays the groundwork for a dangerous crisis in Europe, as well as in the Asia-Pacific Region,” he added, painting his exercise as a challenge to the US. China, another US rival, joined these exercises as Beijing and Moscow increasingly partner to confront the US-led world order.
The timing of USARPAC’s force projection demonstration is “not a coincidence,” Hilbert said, pointing to the Army and larger joint force’s goal of showing the strength and flexibility of US capabilities in the region.
“This is a capability that USARPAC has that we could use anywhere, and this was the right time to use this capability,” the 11th Airborne commander said.
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