The head of U.S. Pacific Command, Admiral Harry Harris, said that he wants the U.S. Army to create new ship-killing units to threaten U.S. adversaries’ surface warships in the Western Pacific including in the East China Sea and South China Sea.

“I believe that the army can do a lot in cross-domain fires,” the admiral said in remarks delivered at an event sponsored by Defense One on November 15 held in Washington D.C. “I think the army should be in the business of sinking ships with land-based surface-to-ship missile systems,” he noted.

“What the Army brings traditionally is what they always bring, which is mass and firepower and capability,” the admiral stated adding that the U.S. Marine Corps could play a similar role in the future. The central element of such a defensive strategy would be built around holding islands that can deny potential adversaries such as the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) access to the open waters of the Western Pacific.

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“I think about an area where you put these weapon systems on places in the western Pacific; they would place at risk potential adversaries in the South China Sea, the East China Sea, the Sea of Japan,” the admiral said. “I think it is an important concept, and we ought to be thinking about it as we figure out how to maintain that edge over our adversaries in the region.”

http://thediplomat.com/2016/11/us-admiral-us-army-needs-to-create-ship-killing-units-for-south-china-sea/