Publication

This paper discusses AirSea Battle, an US operational concept designed to maintain a stable military balance in the Western Pacific Theater of Operations (WPTO). The US military faces an emerging major operational challenge in the WPTO. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s ongoing efforts to field robust anti-access/area-denial capabilities are threatening to make US power projection increasingly risky and, in some cases and contexts, prohibitively costly. If this occurs, the US will find itself effectively locked out of a region that has been declared a vital security interest by every administration in the last sixty years.