Page 78 - Australian Defence Magazine May 2022

78 SEAPOWER RIMPAC
MAY 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
CHINESE PRESENCE
Despite the growing rivalry between the United States and China and the latter’s growing military and political asser- tiveness in the region, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) was invited to 2014’s RIMPAC exercise in a bid to improve relations between the two nations and their re- spective militaries.
The country duly took part in the exercise with two sur- face combatants, a replenishment ship and a hospital ship. It also participated in the 2016 exercise and announced in the 2018 iteration, only to be uninvited in May that year
This call has been included in this year’s US National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which says the invita- tion would supplement US efforts to support the self-gov- erned democratic island in the face of “increasingly coer- cive and aggressive behaviour” by China.
President Joe Biden has already signed the NDAA, al- though Taiwan has not been formally invited to the exer- cise yet. Most observers think an invite will likely be lim- ited to sending observers instead of ships, although even that is unlikely to placate China by much.
EMERGING CONCEPTS
Moving away from politics, one military concept that will likely get an airing at this year’s exercise is the Marines’ Expeditionary Advanced Basing Operations (EABO) con- cept. Designed to take advantage of the Corps’ flexibility as a light fighting force, EABO will see forces deployed to austere and forward operating locations for short periods of time to conduct various operations.
According to the Marines these operations can include supporting sea control operations, conducting sea denial operations within the littorals, and providing forward C4ISR and counter-targeting capability.
The Marines have already been training for such sce- narios, launching truck mounted Kongsberg Naval Strike Missiles after landing via Landing Craft Air Cushions and MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft in Hawaii before engaging a target during Large Scale Exercise 2021.
A basically similar event took place during Exercise Tal- isman Sabre 2021 in Australia, with a Marine Corps and RAAF C-130J Hercules airlifters transporting HIMARS to an austere airfield before conducting a fire mission and then departing.
EABO is a key component in the Marine Corps’ Force Design 2030 efforts, as the service aims to transform itself into light fighting force capable of quickly and flexibly de- ploying throughout the vast expanses of the Indo-Pacific.
This fits into the vision of USINDOPACOM for a distrib- uted force as it seeks to reduce its potential vulnerability to the Chinese ballistic missile arsenal, which is growing in quantity and reach. ■
“ONE MILITARY CONCEPT THAT WILL LIKELY GET AN AIRING AT THIS YEAR’S EXERCISE IS THE MARINES’ EXPEDITIONARY ADVANCED BASING OPERATIONS (EABO) CONCEPT”
due to continued aggressive posture in the South China Sea and questions about how useful the PLAN’s participa- tion at the exercise was in re- ducing tensions.
The official PLAN attend- ees were not its only ships at RIMPAC though, with a Type 815 surveillance ship noted to be observing the exercise dur-
ing both the 2014 and 2016 exercises, no doubt collecting Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) from the participating assets. The surveillance continued during RIMPAC 2018 despite the PLAN’s non-attendance, and with the 2022 exercise be- ing a full-scale event after the COVID-19 pandemic curtailed the 2020 exercise, odds are the PLAN will be there again.
TAIWANESE PARTICIPATION
China’s increasingly belligerent stance on the self-ruled is- land of Taiwan, which China sees as an integral part of its territory, has seen a hardening of the US position towards the island.
China has vowed to take back the island, by force if nec- essary, a threat that is increasingly likely as younger Tai- wanese drift away from seeing themselves as part of China even as the mainland grows in political, economic and military strength.
Taiwan, for its part, claims to be the legitimate govern- ment for all of mainland China. And under the Taiwan Relations Act enacted by Congress in
the wake of the US and China nor-
malising relations in the 1970s, the Act stipulates that the US is required to sell Taiwan arms that are required for defending the island.
Starting with the Trump Adminis- tration, the US has been working to shore up Taiwan’s position, and there are increasing calls for the island’s military to be invited to take part in the upcoming RIMPAC in some form.
RIGHT: HMAS Hobart and HMCS Regina conduct towing approaches during RIMPAC 2020
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