September 03, 2024

U.S. military must reinforce Guam's crumbling infrastructure

By: Taren Sylvester and Evan Wright

In Guam, one is quickly struck by the juxtaposition of crystal-clear waters with crumbling infrastructure and abandoned cars strewn across the small Pacific island.

Following the isolation of the COVID pandemic and the destructive Typhoon Mawar of May 2023, Guam is in a precarious position. The economy has yet to recover -- hotels that have operated for decades are shutting their doors permanently as tourists are slow to return to its shores. The island has only one major power plant, the construction of a second delayed by damage from Mawar.

On the northern end of the island, things are equally bleak for military service members stationed at Andersen Air Force Base (AFB). Trees torn from the ground remain on their sides in the grass as if Mawar had passed through only a month ago, and many of the living quarters on base have been condemned. Military bases are designed to be self-sufficient entities, providing housing, basic necessities and recreation to service members assigned to them. However, it can be a struggle to acquire even fundamental services like regular mail delivery on Guam. In conversations with the authors, airmen expressed frustration with the infrequency of mail deliveries via the United States Postal Service.

Put simply, Guam is not prepared to handle either the defense of military capabilities and logistics on the island nor the evacuation of American civilians from Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, or even the island itself should war to break out with China.

The island lacks adequate public transportation, and cars needed to reach downtown Guam are expensive and quickly wear down. All machinery exposed to the damp, harsh salt air blown in off the ocean faces similar deterioration, and maintenance of basic equipment such as forklifts lags.

This is the reality of the so-called "tip of the spear" that has been the U.S.'s most strategically significant asset in the Pacific since World War II.

Guam, a U.S. territory, represents the largest domestic U.S. military footprint west of Hawaii, where U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) is headquartered. Its location in the central Pacific is key to maintaining lines of supply and communication across the world's largest ocean for all branches of the military. Despite its crucial role in INDOPACOM's plans for forward-deployed U.S. troops in South Korea, Japan and the Philippines, Guam remains a bottleneck to projecting power to deter actors such as China and North Korea. This is because of the vast distances between Hawaii and U.S. overseas military bases in Asia: a distance stretching more than 3,300 nautical miles between Honolulu and Tokyo that can only be traversed with a pitstop in Guam except by the Navy's largest ships.

Read the full article from Nikkei Asia.

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