Rev Up the Rebalance

The Pacific rebalance can’t happen fast enough, US Pacific Command commander Adm. Harry Harris told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. “There is more work to do, and we must not lose the momentum,” he said, noting that China, North Korea, Russia, and ISIS are all in PACOM’s area of operations. Harris repeatedly told the committee there are not enough attack submarines in the Pacific, and said the US also needs the Long-Range Strike Bomber. “If you don’t have presence, then you better have reach,” Harris said. “We need [the LRSB and the next-generation ballistic missile submarine] to maintain our position of strength into the 2020s,” he said. Also at the hearing, Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti said ISR is the “top readiness challenge” in the Korean peninsula. Scaparrotti’s command, US Forces Korea, “requires additional persistent all-weather ISR capabilities, as well as dependable moving-target indicator support to maintain situational awareness and provide adequate decision space,” he said. (See also Don’t Call it a Comeback from the July 2015 issue of Air Force Magazine.)