Washington, D.C. — After years of frustration, Army leaders are reporting progress on upgraded networks designed to facilitate communication with allies and partners across the Pacific should a conflict with China arise.
Speaking to reporters earlier this month, Gen. Ronald Clark, commander of U.S. Army Pacific, recounted a recent trilateral exercise in Japan involving the U.S., Japan, and Australia. Having assumed command only a month prior, Clark noted that the forces were literally unable to pass voice data to one another or create a common operating picture without manually inputting icons into the system. ‘It was so frustrating to me because I just left working in the Pentagon where I had literally attended both the signing ceremonies for AUKUS…sharing our most sensitive defense technology. But we are using basically a swivel chair to have a conversation with regard to land forces.’
Over recent years, the Army has been developing and testing telecommunications pipelines that allied and partner militaries would depend on during a conflict with China. U.S. Indo-Pacific Command administers a broader Pacific Mission Network — formerly the INDOPACOM Mission Network — employed at more strategic or operational levels.
Earlier this year, the U.S., Australia, and Japan leveraged the Pacific Mission Network during the large-scale Balikatan exercise to obtain a real-time picture of participating forces across the entire training area, according to an Army spokesperson speaking with Defense One.
The nations regrouped for Yama Sakura 91, the annual military exercise with Japan and Australia that concluded on September 10.
According to the Army, Yama Sakura 91 demonstrated the live sharing of simulated information within a command-post exercise, while Baliketan 26 showcased the live sharing of real-time information across a physical training environment and multiple echelons.
The network, which connects dozens of nations, served as the linchpin for U.S. Army Pacific to test whether it could share and display identical information as allies and partners.
At the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference, Gen. Clark stated that the mission partner enclaves now function effectively, enabling data passage and sharing in ways previously unattainable. He characterized the network as an ‘important and critical innovation’ resolving years of frustration.
This advancement allows commanders to more readily transmit target-quality data and share a common operational picture without the need to switch between workstations.
For instance, Maj. Gen. Bernard Harrington, commanding the Army’s Multi-Domain Command-Pacific and 7th Infantry Division, can aggregate information on land-based long-range precision fires, sensors, space capabilities, electronic warfare, and cyber assets. He can then share that data with Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. Stephen Koehler, who oversaw the exercise, and integrate it into a joint operational context, as Clark described.
The advancements to the Pacific Mission Network coincide with the Army’s push to integrate additional technology and data sources — predominantly drones — into its forces. The ability to monitor, control, and derive insight from such devices and their collected information is becoming increasingly pivotal on the battlefield.
The 7th Infantry Division recently concluded an exercise designated Bayonet Quest near Lake Huron, Michigan, during which it coordinated high-altitude balloons, aerial and maritime drones via a shared data connection, Harrington told reporters.
‘We employed multiple unmanned aerial systems, multiple unmanned surface vessels, long-range one-way attack systems, and a high-altitude balloon,’ he stated. The division additionally collected and analyzed data from all those systems through a single data layer.
Concluding on October 6, the exercise also enabled the Army to orchestrate drones and coordinate simulated attacks using an ‘adaptive and agentic’ command-and-control system.
‘We were able to ingest a vast amount of data, make sense of it rapidly, and task those systems through a large language model, thereby reducing the need for soldiers on individual ground control stations,’ Harrington remarked in a statement to Defense One.
The exercise demonstrated how unmanned systems could be employed across dispersed Pacific locations, a capability that could help preserve soldier safety, he noted.
Although the exercise concluded earlier this month, the division intends to sustain training with the concept and integrate it into future exercises with allies and partners.
