Facing China's military buildup, particularly its missiles, the Pentagon has designated the Indo-Pacific as its "priority theater." Given the Pacific's vast maritime expanse, the U.S. Army has been improving its firepower by developing various missile systems. This year, the U.S. Army bolstered the presence of its missiles near China, including the deployment of a long-range hypersonic weapon—capable of flying over five times the speed of sound—in Australia and the mid-range Typhon missile system in Japan.
American ground forces based in Hawaii have replaced weapons—such as howitzers—considered outdated and inefficient for a future conflict with the combat-proven High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), capable of firing precision rockets and missiles.
