The bill proposes the purchase of 48 long-range anti-ship missiles (LRASM).
Washington:
Given China’s aggressive behavior, the U.S. Defense Bill – National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2021 – requested a fighter jet training detachment for India, Japan and Australia on the American territory of Guam, in the Pacific. The move comes six months after US Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Singaporean Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen signed a memorandum of understanding for Singapore to establish a fighter jet training detachment in Guam.
The text of NDAA 2021, for the fiscal year beginning October 1, was tabled in the Senate on Thursday.
The law directs the Secretary of Defense to submit to Congress defense committees a report assessing the merits and feasibility of concluding agreements similar to that of Singapore with other American allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region, including including Japan, Australia and India.
The US-Singapore memorandum concerns approximately one squadron of Republic of Singapore Air Force fighter aircraft and associated personnel. Training in Singapore is expected to begin around 2029.
Among other things, the bill establishes the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, which will focus resources on the Indo-Pacific – fill key gaps in military capabilities, reassure American allies and partners, and strengthen the credibility of the United States. United, said Senator Jim Inhofe, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Describing the Indo-Pacific as the “priority theater,” an NDAA report said the bill establishes the Pacific Deterrence Initiative to improve budget transparency and oversight, focus resources on capacity gaps, reassuring allies and partners and restoring the credibility of American deterrence in the region. .
The bill proposes the purchase of 48 long-range anti-ship missiles (LRASM), which, according to him, will be particularly useful in the Indo-Pacific, which the Ministry of Defense has named its priority theater.
LRASM offers short-term capability enhancement that will allow the aircraft wing to help mitigate a Chinese offensive earlier in the conflict, thereby directly advancing the objectives and priorities set out in the National Defense Strategy .
The NDAA is also seeking to accelerate US efforts to establish an F-35A operating forward locations in the Indo-Pacific region.
To date, the Air Force has announced the selection of nine operational locations for the F-35A, including locations in the United States, Alaska and Europe.
It has yet to announce plans for any F-35A operational location in the Indo-Pacific region.
