The Army is preparing to formally join the Pentagon’s AirSea Battle operational concept, reported the Washington Times. The land service will soon issue a memo outlining how it will implement its role in the concept, according to the newspaper’s Sept. 30 report. In 2009, then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates directed the Air Force and Navy to create AirSea Battle, which emphasizes operations in anti-access and area-denial environments. Due to the concept’s emphasis on integrating air and naval assets more closely, the Army did not play a large role in its formulation, according to the newspaper. But already last November, Defense Department officials told reporters that efforts were under way to bring the Army into the construct. (See also No One Left Out and Breaking Down AirSea Battle.)
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…