US military's logistics drill aims to burnish East Asia crisis response
TAIPEI, June 6 (Reuters) - Drills in East Asia this summer by the U.S. military body charged with moving munitions and equipment will help it better coordinate and communicate with allies in response to a crisis, its commander said on Friday.
Alarmed by growing Chinese assertiveness, whether in the disputed South China Sea or around Chinese-claimed Taiwan, Washington and its friends in the region have been drilling together regularly.
The U.S. Transportation Command, or TRANSCOM, is responsible not only for coordinating the pre-positioning of weapons and other equipment around the world by land, air and sea, but also for resupply in the event of conflict.
On a visit to East Asia, TRASNCOM Commander Randall Reed, told reporters it was essential to maintain and expand ties in the region so as to ensure a swift U.S. response to disasters and counter threats to peace and security.
"We're going to have a series of exercises and will test the current logistics architecture and infrastructure which provides sustained freedom of manoeuvre," he said on a teleconference, without giving further details of location or timing.
"We're seeking to demonstrate our ability to rapidly mobilise, then deploy forces from within the United States to locations throughout the region here," Reed added, describing the aim of one exercise, Mobility Guardian.
The tasks will permit testing of tactics, techniques and procedures with allies and partners and enhance connectivity, he said.
"It will help us deepen relationships and work together even more closely than we already are to bolster regional security."
On his trip, Reed has visited Japan and the Philippines and will go to South Korea, all treaty allies of the United States.
The militaries of the Philippines and the United States have sailed together in the South China Sea for a seventh time to boost interoperability between the two sides, Manila's armed forces said on Thursday.
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The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
What it would take to convert a jet from Qatar into Air Force One to safely fly Trump
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The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
As a generation of gay and lesbian people ages, memories of worse — and better — times swirl
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Neo-Nazi group ‘actively seeking to grow in US' with planned paramilitary training event
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'The group has previously stated multiple times that being a member or training with them is a risky endeavor; however, planning a meetup, which they will inevitably use for propaganda purposes, is a different approach than even a year ago, when the group advertised regional activities.' In response to queries about the Base's latest movements, the FBI told the Guardian that it only investigates people who have or are planning to commit a federal crime and pose 'a threat to national security'. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion 'Our focus is not on membership in particular groups but on criminal activity,' said a spokesperson for the FBI. 'Membership in groups is not illegal in and of itself and is protected by the first amendment.' But in Michigan and in Georgia, members of the Base were charged with their criminal associations to the group. The Trump administration's security posture on the far right is to downplay its significance. Yet experts unanimously agree: it is the top domestic terrorism threat facing the country. Instead, Patel, the FBI's director, has gone about removing agents from pursuing the far right, while one of Trump's first actions in his second term was to provide unconditional pardons, en masse, to all of the January 6 insurrectionists. Fisher-Birch also pointed out that the Base had taken itself more seriously and upped its activities in Ukraine to the tune of calling for the murder of government officials and acts of sabotage – with the clearly stated goal of forming a white ethnostate in the west of the country. Already, the Ukrainian cell has uploaded geolocated videos of some of these attacks, one showing the burning of a military vehicle and what looks like a government electrical box. 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