The Ministry of Defense still has to develop a clear strategy to guide the construction, deployment and long -term management of the rocket defense architecture that builds it on GUAM, has determined the Government Accountability Office.
The office is concerned that without such a plan the costs risk and flood and an infrastructure will not be ready to accommodate the extra staff needed to exploit the defensive shield.
In a report published on 22 May, the government notes that although the Pentagon has set up organizations to manage the Guam defense system and now has designated lead services for maintaining and exploiting it, there is no strategy to transfer responsibilities of the Missile Defense Agency to the different service labels.
“As a result, DOD Riskor Risk scheme delays for the implementation of GDS [Guam Defense System] Elements and incomplete plans for organization, training, personnel levels and facilities, among other things, ”says the report.
The army, which leads the effort to establish the system on the strategic island in the Pacific, is also confronted with obstacles to argue for construction and installation support of the other military services set on Guam.
And the Ministry of Defense does not yet have to come up with solid figures for staff needed to control and support the system and estimates when they can arrive according to the report.
“Without clear personnel requirements or implementation schedules, the services will not be able to adequately plan the required support systems that will reduce the readiness of the service personnel and aggravate the existing infrastructure,” says De Waakhond.
At the end of 2023, the Pentagon pointed at 2024 as crucial for setting up the planned rocket defense architecture on Guam. As the threat from China continues to grow, the DOD promised to offer a fundamental opportunity to prevent a potential attack that was aimed at Guam by the end of 2024. That schedule is already slipping.
Guam is an island of nearly 170,000 people who are in a vulnerable position – it is closer to Beijing than to Hawaii. The island hosts a considerable amount of American combat power and would therefore be an attractive target for China in the case of a war in the Taiwan street.
The Missile Defense Agency and the army were looking for a combined $ 1.5 billion in the tax budget of 2024 to prepare the island by moving assets in place and integrating capacities.
The Pentagon designated the army in 2023 as the lead service that supervised the acquisition and implementation plan for defending Guam.
Compete for resources
According to the report, the current plan is to spread elements of architecture over 16 locations on the island and to set up a Guam Command Center. The Pentagon is planning to start its first bet in Fiscal 2027, with the last GDS elements in Fiscal 2032.
The architecture is a major task, given the earlier experience of the army that was set up a terminal at a great height of the scheme, or Thaad, on Guam on Guam in 2013.
The Thaad -battery, known as Task Force Talon, was first deployed as an expedition, but was permanently stationed in June 2016 to defend against possible ballistic rocket threats from North Korea.
More than ten years later, the report points out that the army does not have sufficient installation support for the Thaad battery and has difficulty getting the navy approvals for construction to support the system. The status of the army on the island leaves it without its own building planners, so that it must rely on other services.
GAO, for example, reports that the Thaad unit has not received an approval to start until January 2024 to start environmental facilities to build a temporary maintenance facility for equipment after a typhoon hit the island in May 2023.
GAO reported earlier that the limited homes of Guam is a concern because the Marines are present there, and the Air Force and Marine have both building priorities for their own bases that can compete for resources needed for the establishment of the rocket tape system. (Lcpl. Garrett Gillespie/US Marine Corps)
The device also has a limited storage space for parts and has to leave some parts outside unprotected, resulting in continuous corrosion problems.
And sober circumstances have resulted in 'moral challenges', said Gao. The Thaad unit had just installed a latrine with running water and an ice machine in 2023. There is still no drinking water on the location.
The army will need a much larger number of facilities to support the new rocket defense architecture and wants to “make Guam a Duty Station of your choice,” the report said.
The army will continue to rely on installation support of the other services because it will not establish its own base on the island, said Gao.
“The army is likely to be confronted with challenges in arguing for construction priorities and coordinating installation support at multiple locations.”
At the same time, the Pentagon wants to move staff to the island for the rocket weather system. The Marine Corps also moves 1,700 Marines from Okinawa, Japan, to Guam. The plan is to move them all by 2029, the report notes.
The agency reported earlier that the limited homes of Guam is a concern because the Marines are present there, and the Air Force and Marine have both building priorities for their own bases that can compete for resources needed for the establishment of the rocket tape system.
The Pentagon also had difficulty determining which service would be responsible for working and maintaining which elements of the Guam architecture. GAO indicated that there were some internal disputes about the distribution of responsibilities for various aspects of the system.
Density
Despite the deputy Minister of Defense, who instructs the army in June 2023 to determine how many staff would be needed for GDS within 120 days, the service did not complete the task and, according to the report, still did not produce a number by August 2024.
The army told Gao that it was waiting for the Pentagon to decide the main organizations for operations and maintenance before the personnel level, facility needs and training plans were determined.
According to the report, the Pentagon also did not set a timeline for transferring responsibility.
“DOD has proposed several military services to manage GDS, making the development of a plan for working and retaining GDS particularly challenging,” the report said. “In particular, DOD officials told us that this rocket defense program will be the largest and most complicated communication and planning challenges of the department and a challenges of DOD -interests of Dod.”
Without any prediction of staff that will flow on the island about which timeline, the Pentagon is confronted with the prospect of “deploying staff at Guam without sufficient facilities or installation services, including security of locations, fire protection and emergency management on bases that are managed by three different military services in Guam”, according to the report.
Some estimates state that with Fiscale 2028 there will be a need for around 913 army personnel in Guam, while another calculates a possible growth of 4,464 staff by the same year.
In general, the population of the island will grow an estimated 17,917 personnel and persons charged to 26,605 with tax 2034.
In his report, GAO recommends that the Pentagon is developing a strategy with a timeline for transferring responsibilities to lead organizations and services for the various elements of architecture.
The army must also develop a “long -term strategy” for its organization as a supported command on the island.
And the Minister of Defense must determine the personnel requirements that it is necessary for the architecture “to give sufficient time to complete the construction of necessary support facilities on Guam,” said the report.
