United States rearms to reduce China's missile supremacy

In a bid to shrink the wide missile gap, the United States initiated stockpiling of new weapons and strategies in a long-term struggle for power with China as the two pacific powers have a faceoff over the coronavirus pandemic, according to a news agency reports. In recent times, as China expanded its military firepower, the US was on standby, however, the Pentagon has now resorted to ramp up its armament having shed the constraints of a Cold War-era arms control treaty. 

As of May 6, the Trump administration rolled out a plan to deploy long-range, ground-launched cruise missiles in the Asia-Pacific region, according to reports. In a bid to surpass the pacific superpower China, US reportedly said that it will deploy Marines with versions of the Tomahawk cruise missile now carried on US warships, according to the White House budget requests for 2021 and Congressional testimony in March of senior U.S. military commanders, a news agency reported. New long-range anti-ship missiles deliveries are being enhanced to counter China’s overwhelming advantage in land-based cruise and ballistic missiles. 

"Stop flexing military power"

As per China’s statement on the latest US developments, it urged that the US had to “be cautious in word and deed,” and it needed to stop moving chess pieces around the region, and to “stop flexing its military muscles” around China, a news agency quoted. However, in a radical shift in tactics, US Marines armed with anti-ship missiles will join forces with the US Navy and will be dispersed at key points in the Western Pacific.  

Read: Military Jets Honour New Orleans Virus Workers

Read: North Korea Exchanged Fire With South Korea's Military Across Border: Reports

Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, General David Berger, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 5 that Tomahawk missile could assist the U.S. Navy to gain control of seas along the so-called first island chain, US media reports confirmed. Enclosing China’s coastal seas, the first island chain runs from the Japanese archipelago, through Taiwan, the Philippines, and on to Borneo. 

According to senior U.S. and other Western strategists, the US military shift reportedly intends to send a strong political signal to compete with China’s massive arsenal. With US Navy and Air Force strike aircraft deploying new, long-range anti-ship missiles, Trump administration aims to convey an immediate threat to the PLA and Chinese forces, as per media reports. However, Chinese military spokesman, Senior Colonel Wu Qian, warned last October that China would “not stand by” if the US deployed land-based, long-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region, as per State-run media reports. 

Read: Quarantined Military Engineering Services Personnel Hangs Self

Read: NATO Air Forces Scramble Jets Thrice In Two Days To Intercept Russian Military Planes