MAY 15, 2025 – Yesterday, during the 2025 Land Forces Pacific Symposium and Exposition in Honolulu, the U.S. military’s senior leader in the Indo-Pacific area of responsibility discussed ways the Army contributes to the joint force’s overall mission throughout the region.
Navy Adm. Samuel J. Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said “fires” or weapons systems that strike targets are the capability he needs the most.
“The ability to deliver fast, accurate and lethal fires across domains is fundamental,” he said.
Paparo referenced China’s potential invasion of Taiwan as an example, noting that U.S. maritime and air superiority aren’t necessarily needed to prevent an invasion. Rather, the joint force needs the capability to deny China’s use of the Taiwan Strait.
“And the Army’s fires capability, integrated with the … joint force, is essential to deny that zone by imposing devastating costs [to China],” he added.
Paparo also said that, over the past nine years, the Army has risen to meet a challenge issued by a previous Indo-Pacom commander to forge a capability to “Sink ships, neutralize satellites, shoot down missiles and deny the enemy’s command and control.”
“The Army responded decisively [to the challenge] with the creation of multidomain task forces,” Paparo said.
He added that there are currently MDTFs in the field bringing land-based capability to oppose the enemy’s command, control, communications, computers and information systems’ surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting capabilities.
“This fundamentally alters the strategic calculus in the contested environment,” Paparo said, adding that the MDTF capability allows the joint force to place fires and effects “precisely at the time and the place of our choosing.”
Paparo also praised the Army’s short-range, ballistic Precision Strike Missile capability, calling it “a game-changer that fundamentally alters China’s risk calculus; this is a matter of record.” He noted that the missile system is capable of potentially neutralizing numerous enemy targets before any kinetic conflict begins.
“These capabilities — along with space, cyber and electronic warfare — operate from key terrain in the first island chain and near strategic maritime choke points, creating … persistent and lethal effects,” Paparo said, adding that he considers the Army’s fires capability to be the most valuable and lethal asset in the region.
Paparo also spoke about the command’s air and missile defense components. He said the missile threat posed by China and North Korea is growing in “both quality and sophistication,” and that the command’s AMD needs to be resilient, adaptive and responsive to evolving challenges.
He also said interoperability with allies is key.
“By connecting these defense systems, sharing intelligence and coordinating responses, we create a common operating picture and then, accordingly, a combined defense shield,” Paparo said.
He also discussed the Army’s role in sustainment throughout the region, stating that effective sustainability is “existential.”
Paparo said integrating artificial intelligence into the process is “revolutionizing sustainment” because it allows his command to anticipate requirements in all classes of supply — fuel, ammunition and missiles.
The admiral said the Army provides the “backbone” of the joint force’s ability to sustain combat power throughout the region, and its role in theater-wide sustainment cannot be overstated.
He said the challenges in the Indo-Pacific region are “formidable but not insurmountable.”
“The Army’s contributions to joint conflicts are transformative and inspiring, but we all must do more,” Paparo said. “And we need to do it now.”
By Matthew Olay, DOD News