The Army’s ability to project power in the Indo-Pacific is more important than ever, said Gen. Ron Clark, commanding general of U.S. Army Pacific.

“Never more than now, the importance of land power is coming to the fore in the Indo-Pacific, not just for the United States, but for our allies and partners as well,” Clark said June 27 during a Strategic Landpower Dialogue event co-hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Our ability at U.S. Army Pacific to have positional advantage in the theater through persistent presence is really important.”

Since the Indo-Pacific encompasses over half of the Earth’s surface, and it takes about a month to get to the theater from the U.S. by ship, positional advantage is essential to overcoming the “tyranny of distance” inherent to the region, Clark said.

China, long considered to be the U.S.’ pacing challenge, is developing capabilities “at a pace and scale … we have not experienced,” Clark said.

“Our opportunity here … is to watch and learn to understand … how they're operating, what they're doing [and] where the gaps and seams are in their learning and their operations so we can continue to exploit that, because what we have to do is provide multiple dilemmas to the Chinese,” Clark said.

Clark praised the Army’s transforming in contact initiative, which puts new technology in soldiers’ hands for testing, and its impact in the Indo-Pacific. The 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii, which has played a key role in the initiative, has provided vital feedback on equipment, including unmanned aircraft systems and counter-unmanned aircraft systems.

Looking to air defense, Patriot crews from South Korea and Japan have demonstrated the Army’s air defense capabilities, even under enemy fire, Clark said, citing the soldiers’ successful interception of over a dozen Iranian missiles at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

“What [the Iranian strike] gives us in the Indo-Pacific, specific to our formations that are responsible for air defense, is now we have an entire generation of soldiers who have fought the Patriot missile system in real time,” he said. “Our adversary doesn't have that, where their ability to be able to fight … for their own survival and existence and the survival and existence of their mates is absolutely important.”

Clark stressed that the future battlefield demands moving from fighting alongside allies and partners to achieving interoperability with them.

“What we hope for in all of our activities with our allies and partners is that we're building relationships, and relationships built during times of relative peace on a bedrock of trust is where we rely during times of conflict,” he said. “Our adversaries don't have technical, personal or procedural interoperability, so we have to continue to cause them multiple dilemmas [and] continue to work through the challenges associated with the changing character of warfare.”