• The US military is working to build an integrated air and missile defense system to protect Guam.

• China's massive missile arsenal and capabilities are driving changes.

• Army officials highlighted the need for a variety of air defenses with deeper magazines.

Guam faces a substantial threat from China's massive missile arsenal, and US Army officials say more air defense capabilities are desperately needed.

Efforts to defend this strategic US territory in the Pacific from a barrage in the event of war are underway, but Army leaders say one of the biggest challenges is fielding integrated systems with deeper magazines to stop air and missile attacks.

At a Center for Strategic and International Studies panel on the defense of Guam late last month, Army Brig. Gen. Frank Lozano, the program executive officer for the US Army's Missiles and Space program, said that he'd called for, among other capabilities, something like the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile but with smaller rounds.

"Because the key is magazine depth. I'm looking for magazine depth," Lozano said, noting that only "having six missiles on a launcher and having about a 45-minute reload time, you're not going to be survivable in a Guam defensive situation."

The Army has said that capabilities like the National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System with a magazine depth of six rounds are insufficient. The NASAMS can fire the AMRAAM.

Instead, the Army wants "an AIM-120D-like capability, but with smaller rounds that fit inside an IFPC Increment 2 launcher holding 18 interceptors," according to a Congressional Research Service report. The Army Indirect Fire Protection Capability (IFPC) Increment 2 can fire AIM-9Xs. Lozano said he needs an AIM-120 capability in an AIM-9 package to "be able to service the quantity of threats we expect to defend against."

And this is just one line of effort, though, for Guam. A challenge facing the US joint force efforts to build a layered, integrated defense network for Guam is fielding systems capable of working together to intercept an adversary's attack. Such a barrage could be complex and include waves of unmanned systems, ballistic missiles, and supersonic missiles.

"We're looking at a pacing threat of China that has offensive capabilities unlike anything we've been seeing," Lt. Gen. Robert Rasch, Director of Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office and Executive Officer for the Joint Program Office for Guam, said at the CSIS event, explaining "it requires us to think differently."

"We're looking at a small space, we're looking at a potential adversary that has a lot of capability and capacity, and so we have to be very efficient with how we utilize the capabilities we have, so it's causing us to think differently," he said.

Efforts to develop defensive capabilities for Guam have been underway for a few years now, but major decisions on which agencies will own which equipment and how the capabilities will work together in an integrated fashion still remain to be made.

At the CSIS talk, Army officials noted that work is underway on how to best incorporate a range of different offensive and defensive capabilities. These include Patriot air- and missile-defense systems, the in-development Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor planned to replace Patriot's radar, newly fielded Mid-Range Capability missile launchers, and prototype Indirect Fire Protection Capability launchers.

Beyond the Army, other US service branches are also planning to incorporate their systems into the defense network. For the Navy, this includes the Aegis weapon system on destroyers and cruisers.

Perhaps the most difficult and daunting aspect of defending Guam, Rasch said, will be ensuring that all of the joint force's capabilities are able to operate together in one environment.

The nature of the threat "requires us to try to maximize the performance of these different systems brought in from the services to make sure that we're looking at what's the most effective interceptor against the threat and to not leave it to chance that we have two really bad situations occur: a threat's coming in and one service thinks the other service has it and nobody engages or, almost as bad, both services engage," he said.

US military officials and lawmakers have expressed growing concerns that Guam is vulnerable to a devastating missile attack from an adversary such as China.

Department of Defense reports on China's military highlight the capabilities that threaten the island, such as the DF-26 missile, and in May, 13 members of Congress, including the Chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, wrote a letter to military leaders detailing their concerns about glaring weak spots in US bases and airfields in the Pacific. Guam is notably home to Andersen Air Force Base.

"We are concerned about the alarming lack of urgency by the Department of Defense in adopting such defensive measures," the lawmakers wrote, demanding "immediate changes" to defending US positions, including passive defenses such as hardened aircraft shelters and force dispersal.

The main prompt for this letter was, the lawmakers wrote, fear that a preemptive missile attack from China could wipe US forces out of the Pacific.

They argued that "with its current strike capabilities, China can attack all US bases in the region, targeting US service members from Okinawa to those on US territories of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands."

China's missile force, known as the Rocket Force, is the crowned jewel of the People's Liberation Army.

In recent years, the US has tracked a meteoric rise in the force's capabilities, arsenal size, and testing. From 2021 to 2022 alone, the Chinese military effectively doubled its stock of some missiles, including medium-range ballistic missiles capable of targeting US bases in Japan, as well as intermediate-range missiles capable of reaching Guam, according to the Pentagon's report last fall.

One such missile, the DF-26, has been commonly referred to as the "Guam Express" or the "Guam Killer."

The sheer number of ballistic missiles in China's growing arsenal is particularly concerning, but the configuration of such a missile barrage is also worrying for US military officials.

"You have to have a battle management, fire control system capable of adjusting on the fly based on how threats are presented," Lozano said. "And then, real-time, making decisions, teeing up decisions for operators to make so that they're survivable and they win in that defensive scenario."

Although some would argue it could take it further, Guam's defense is a priority for the US military amid a shift toward strengthening its position in the Pacific in order to deter further aggression from China.

But with the island closer to Beijing than Hawaii, a problem quickly becomes how to ensure the US can maintain that key position should a conflict arise. In Chinese military doctrine, there is a notable emphasis on the idea of a preemptive, surprise strike being ideal for crippling an adversary's ability to respond.

Guam is currently protected by air- and missile-defense systems like the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, as well as Navy ships equipped with Aegis missile defense capabilities. But people who have been tasked with defending Guam argue additional steps ought to be taken.

A former leader of US Indo-Pacific Command previously told Business Insider that one of the best ways to counter China's missiles is to make "robust" air and missile defenses a reality this decade — not just in Guam, but also across other Pacific islands, as well as in US allies.

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US Army working on new missile defense strategy with eye toward 2040

The U.S. Army is planning to release a refreshed missile defense strategy focused on needs in the 2040 timeframe to counter a wide variety of complex threats, according to Lt. Gen. Sean Gainey, the service’s Space and Missile Defense Command commander.

The command is targeting October 2025 to release the new strategy, a joint effort by the Space and Missile Defense Center of Excellence and Army Futures Command, as well as other service players such as the Army Air and Missile Defense Commands and the Fires Center of Excellence, he said during a press briefing at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium.

The Army is taking “an integrated approach to the strategy,” Gainey noted, and it will be nested in the Army’s multidomain operations doctrine and warfighting concepts.

The service previously released a strategic air and missile defense vision in 2018, which was focused on the 2028 time period. That strategy centered on structure and force organization, “but also what we fight with and how we fight well,” Gainey said. “But it’s time to look even further into the future.”

The new strategy will take into account “what we’ve learned from previous years and current conflicts to design the type of force we’ll need” to ensure an AMD force is successful in 2040, Gainey said.

Looking at ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and in the Middle East, Gainey noted, “It’s real easy to see the challenges that are out there.”

“We have an idea, we know currently how the threat is evolving and where we believe the threat is [in] the future,” Gainey said. “So, this strategy is going to allow us the opportunity to lay a foundation ... with capability and development to be able to address that future threat.”

Already the command has determined there are some imperatives that will be included in the future strategy.

“We know we will operate under constant observation and in continuous contact — 360-degree coverage is a non-negotiable,” he said.

The strategy also will recognize that technology used for missile defense must have an open architecture and use “all benefits” of artificial intelligence, Gainey noted.

Capability should also be “fast and cost curve-informed and adaptable,” he said.

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US Army to hold new counter-drone battle command system competition

 The U.S. Army is planning to hold a competition to replace its command-and-control system capable of managing drone threats for the maneuver force in the second quarter of fiscal 2025, Lt. Gen. Frank Lozano, the service’s program executive officer for missiles and space, said Tuesday at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium.

“One of the technological advancements that we’re working on is a critical decision aid process,” he said. “The integration of [artificial intelligence] algorithms help operators make decisions in a much more timely fashion.”

As a result, the Army is looking for a more capable Forward Area Air Defense Command and Control, or FAAD C2, capability that is like its Integrated Battle Command System, or IBCS, but focused on countering drones within the maneuver force, Lozano said.

IBCS is the C2 system for the Army’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense System but will also tie other sensors and shooters together on the battlefield. IBCS reached full-rate production in 2023.

“The intent … is to take what we have in IBCS where we leverage a track fusion engine, multiple engagement calculators, self-healing mesh network and leverage that into a smaller package for counter-[unmanned aircraft systems] applications,” Lozano described.

The intent is to begin with “something easily digestible, easily achievable, that many in industry can compete and participate in with the hopes of winning an award,” Lozano said. “I’m looking forward to a lot of participants in this room being able to compete for that capability.”

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Creating space careers for enlisted soldiers a priority, officials say

The U.S. Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command has sent a proposal up the chain to establish a space-dedicated military occupation specialty for non-commissioned officers during the earlier stages of their careers, Lt. Gen. Sean Gainey, the command’s leader, said Aug. 6 at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium.

The service put together a new space vision at the end of 2023, which strengthens the Army’s role in space and its use of space-based capabilities.

“The Army has a place in space and we need to continue leading the charge by giving ourselves every opportunity to become the experts we’ll turn to during the next conflict,” Gainey said. “[But] it’s also clear to me that our Army is missing a major piece of the puzzle when it comes to space operations.”

That is where establishing a space-focused MOS comes in.

The proposal to create the military occupation specialty was submitted to the Army G-1, the branch in charge of personnel, about six weeks ago, SMDC Command Sergeant Major John Foley told reporters at the symposium.

Once staffing is complete the decision will go to Army senior leaders, Foley said. If given a green light the new occupation could take roughly two more years to implement.

Soldiers assigned to the new job would be designated as “40 Delta MOS, to where they’re now space soldiers and they’re experts,” Foley said.

Space and Missile Defense Command is also busy implementing the Army’s new space vision. The service’s space-focused mission has had to adapt since the arrival of the U.S. Space Force in 2019.

Prior to the establishment of the military’s youngest branch, the Army’s space-related mission areas included satellite communications; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; and missile warning. All of those roles were transferred to the Space Force over the last several years.

The service’s new vision carves out new mission areas, such as integrating joint space capabilities and interdicting or disrupting adversaries’ use of space for hostile purposes.

The Army has stressed the need to create and exploit space domain effects — and invest in more space capabilities and formations — to enable successful operations.

Formations set to take responsibility for the interdiction mission include multidomain task forces and theater strike effects groups. The Army has already established three MDTFs — two in the Pacific theater and one in Europe. Two more will be activated in the coming years, with these task forces expected to use cyber and electronic warfare capabilities to block adversaries’ defenses.

Simultaneously, theater strike effects groups would “synchronize and deliver Army space interdiction fires in support of theater targeting objectives.”

New capabilities will include next-generation tactical terminals to fuse data from multi-orbit satellite communications services and space-enabled tactical ISR platforms, as well as high-altitude sensors like balloons and long-endurance, fixed-wing aircraft.

Already the Army has repositioned several thousand soldiers in support of multidomain operations, and the service has developed a space training strategy that will soon be released, Gainey said.

That strategy will be “key to all the formations in the Army being able to train at their unit, at the tactical level on simple space capabilities [like] GPS jamming, how to react in those environments,” Foley said. “That entire vision ... complements all that we are talking about, building, modernization — and then the ownership at tactical level for those commanders to say this is a priority. We need to be able to train these specific tasks so that when and if they are denied, disrupted, jammed, [then] they can react.”

Adding more offensive space control capabilities inside the theater strike effects group is also something the command is discussing. The TSEG is moving from concept to interim capability in the 2027 timeframe and will go to the Indo-Pacific theater to inform a future “objective force,” Gainey said.

“We’re already hearing from other [combatant commands] that they want that capability,” he noted.

Personnel from Space and Missile Defense Command and Army Futures Command are working together to develop a concept for what the objective force will look like, Gainey said, adding that an announcement on that may come “hopefully next year.”

Meanwhile, SMDC is working to get capability to the multidomain task forces. Such efforts may include prototyping and experimenting with high-altitude balloons and aircraft while examining such capabilities within the MDTFs.

”You’re going to see space capability proliferate” throughout those formations, Gainey added. “[They’re] going to experiment with it, train with it, and then provide us feedback into our Army capability manager and into our schoolhouse.”

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