By Cheryl Pellerin DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, August 21, 2015 — The Defense Department’s
Asia-Pacific rebalance has entered its next phase, Defense Secretary Ash Carter
said earlier this year, and the Army’s I Corps is positioned to support it, I
Corps Commanding General Army Lt. Gen. Stephen R. Lanza said in a recent
interview.
To support the region, defense leaders focus on efforts to
strengthen relationships and modernize U.S. alliances there. This is a priority
for 21st century security interests and sustaining U.S. global leadership,
Carter said in May at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
As the secretary of defense, Carter said he’s “personally
committed to next phase, in which DoD will deepen long-standing alliances and
partnerships, diversify America's force posture and make new investments in key
capabilities and platforms.”
Lanza, speaking from I Corps headquarters at Joint Base
Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Washington, told DoD News that I Corps is a large
organization with a very large footprint.
First Corps
“We're the largest military base in the Pacific we happen to
be a joint base between the Army and the Air Force,” he said. At headquarters
they call the organization First Corps.
I Corps has forces approaching 50,000, Lanza added, and it
works with 36 countries in the Pacific.
The Corps is made up of organizations that include the 7th
Infantry Division, the 593rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, the 25th
Infantry Division, I Corps Forward in Japan and U.S. Army Alaska, with its two
combat brigades in Fort Wainwright and in Anchorage, the general said.
I Corps has forces in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East,
he added, and the forces conduct operations for theater security cooperation in
the many Pacific countries.
Projecting Power
“What makes us unique also is that Joint Base Lewis-McChord
is an extensive power-projection platform with airlift capability from the
C-17s and our port capabilities in Tacoma and Seattle,” Lanza said.
“That makes us extremely important in terms of being able to
project combat power in the Pacific,” he added.
As to I Corps’ role in the Pacific, Lanza said, “We want to
… help set the theater for Gen. Brooks, the U.S. Army Pacific commander, and
help de-escalate conflict and avoid miscalculation while we conduct operations
globally as well.”
I Corps has never left the Pacific, the general added.
“We've had a lot of taskers and requirements with Iraq and
Afghanistan, but as far as our role goes right now,” Lanza said, “the Corps has
changed its mission now and we are an operational headquarters for U.S. Army
Pacific.”
Pacific Pathways
I Corps is the only corps assigned to a combatant commander,
the general added, in this case Navy Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., commander of
U.S. Pacific Command.
Lanza said I Corps has projected power in the region through
many operations in Japan and Korea, and through a program called Pacific
Pathways, in which a brigade combat team goes to three different countries over
a four-month period to conduct operations.
The BCT in this third iteration of Pacific Pathways will
conduct operations in Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia, he said.
“What we've done with Pacific Pathways is taken what used to
be exercises and made those operations that test our ability to deploy, build
readiness, conduct operations in these other countries, and enhance our
experimentation in innovation as we do this,” Lanza said.
Expanding Role
Since 2012 the Corps’ role in the Pacific has expanded in
terms of military engagements, operations with other countries, and the Corps’
role in building military capabilities in other countries, he added.
“What the Corps does is bring additional capability and
capacity into the theater that now exists full time for the Pacific commander,”
Lanza said, offering examples of I Corps expansion in the region.
“We just completed a task force certification in Australia
with the Australian military and their interagency and our interagency,” the
general said.
This means that as a joint task force-capable headquarters,
I Corps can conduct operations in a joint intergovernmental, interagency,
multinational environment to support the combatant commander.
JTF Certification
“We did that by working with our Australian counterparts,
counterparts from other countries and the interagency in a combined-arms
operation against a hybrid threat and a near-peer competitor in Australia,” the
general explained.
I Corps participates in many regional exercises, Lanza said,
including Ulchi Freedom Guardian, a bilateral exercise with South Korea to
exercise contingency operations, and Yama Sakura with the Japanese, an annual
simulation-driven, joint-command-post exercise co-hosted by U.S. Army Pacific
and the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force.
“We have been able to effectively engage nine countries just
over the last year -- countries such as Mongolia, the Philippines, Thailand,
Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore,” he added, “so our presence is really felt
right now in the Pacific.”
Lanza said that about 80 percent of what happens in the
Pacific involves humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
Humanitarian Assistance
I Corps supported the Marines in the Philippines during
Operation Damayan -- the name for military relief efforts to help the
population after 2013’s typhoon Haiyan -- with the 593rd Expeditionary
Sustainment Command, the general said.
The Marines have the lead, he said, but I Corps provides
additional depth and capacity to support the operations if needed.
Lanza said is main concern about I Corps’ future involves
the threat of the severe budget cuts required by the Budget Control Act and
represented by the term sequestration.
“My concern is not so much our ability to conduct operations
in the Pacific. My concern really is with readiness if sequestration comes to
fruition,” the general said.
“If we have a force that takes us down to 420,000 , and
sequestration is the law,” Lanza said, “my concern is that the resources we
need right now will not keep up with the requirements we now have globally and
regionally.”
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