In the lush tropical jungles and humid islands of the Pacific, the U.S. Army is training soldiers on how to master the darkness, utilizing low visibility conditions after sunset to prepare for potential high-end conflicts in the Indo-Pacific region and with China.
The Pacific is a key area of concern for the U.S. military, as it is where adversaries, including China, are located. The Pentagon refers to China’s threat as a “creeping challenge”.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Pacific Army held a large-scale annual training at the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center (JPMRC) in Hawaii. During the exercise, the U.S. troops simulated a high-end battle against a similarly capable opponent.
The focus of the Hawaii exercise was to prepare soldiers for operating in tropical conditions in the Indo-Pacific region and to train for nighttime combat capabilities, given the many small islands scattered across the Pacific.
Established in 2022, the JPMRC is a combat training center for the U.S. Army in the Indo-Pacific region. Each year, forces assigned by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command can undergo three rotations: one in the Hawaiian Islands, one in the Arctic tundra of Alaska, and one with allies or partner nations west of the International Date Line for overseas training.
General Charles Flynn, the U.S. Pacific Army Commander, stated in September last year that a strong army would be crucial in defending allies in the Indo-Pacific and countering Chinese aggression.
Nighttime operations were a major highlight of the recent exercise, posing one of the biggest challenges in the Pacific theater.
Major General Marcus Evans of the U.S. Army told Business Insider, “Nighttime operations remain a key focus for us.” He is the commander of the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii.
He explained, “The ability to hide in noise is another area of enhanced protection, which is part of our training here and in the Philippines.”
Evans emphasized that this capability is a “perishable skill”, highly dependent on technology, full of challenges and opportunities, meaning that if units do not continuously train, they will lose this skill.
During this year’s JPMRC rotation in Hawaii, soldiers carried out a long-range maritime air assault, with around 300 soldiers moving in the dead of night to secure an airport 200 miles away. The assault and other elements of the exercises aimed to teach troops how to maintain concealment and covertly navigate between islands in the Pacific.
Evans said that at night, soldiers are “not easily detected”, and that “night operations enhance protection”. This environment is suitable for transporting infantry vehicles or aviation troops in different terrains, refueling aircraft, or conducting long-range missions across islands or the Pacific.
The battlefield in Ukraine serves as an example. As drone threats grow, nighttime missions and operations have become increasingly common in Ukraine. However, sensors and intelligence systems (such as drones equipped with thermal imaging technology to pinpoint enemy locations) still pose challenges at night.
Therefore, the U.S. Army has been working to improve the offensive and defensive use of the electromagnetic spectrum, ensuring that soldiers are not discovered in enemy systems and sensors, and finding ways to hide soldiers’ features or disrupt the enemy’s ability to locate them.
Evans told Business Insider that making soldiers’ targets “small and undetectable” is crucial.
Night operations help units maintain concealment and gain advantages, especially in the jungle battlefields of the Pacific region.
“This is an environment that others can’t exploit at night,” Evans said. Training on how to move stealthily through challenging terrains while remaining concealed is a significant challenge but also part of the larger goal of the Army and JPMRC.
“Our primary mission at JPMRC is to be battle-ready,” Evans said, “and being able to train in this kind of terrain is indeed a key factor in strengthening and advancing our readiness.”
Over the past twenty years, China has been modernizing its military and making investments that challenge the U.S.’ ability to control sea and air in the Western Pacific. China has built artificial islands in the South China Sea as military outposts and seeks to expand its presence in the Indo-Pacific by establishing bases like the recently agreed upon Cambodian naval facility.
China is also a major destabilizing factor in the Indo-Pacific. Chinese navy and coast guard have been conducting provocative actions in the South China Sea and around Taiwan. In the South China Sea, conflicts between China and the Philippines have been increasingly frequent, with Chinese coast guard vessels frequently ramming Philippine ships.
Provocative actions by Chinese fighter jets and warships in the airspace and waters around Taiwan have escalated tensions in the Taiwan Strait. Not long ago, China conducted naval exercises to block Taiwan in response to a speech by Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen on Double Ten Day, drawing strong condemnation from the US, EU, and Japan.
Flynn pointed out that the strategic uncertainty in the Indo-Pacific is fundamentally driven by China’s ambitious provocations and disruption of the rule-based international order.
In April, the Philippines and the U.S. military conducted the annual “Salaknib” exercises throughout the Philippines. For the first time, JPMRC was involved, supporting the Philippine Army in developing its operational readiness training area at Fort Magsaysay. The highlight of the exercise was the deployment of the U.S. Army’s Mid-Range Capability (MRC) missile system in Northern Luzon.
On April 15th, the U.S. Pacific Army Command announced on its website that the 1st Multidomain Task Force (1st MDTF) had deployed the “Typhon” missile system with medium-range striking capabilities in Northern Luzon, Philippines, marking a significant milestone.
This was the system’s first appearance in the first island chain. The medium-range missile system has a range of over two thousand kilometers, thus reaching the southeastern coast of China and sensitive regions like the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. Experts see this move as a demonstration of U.S. military strength in the Indo-Pacific to deter China.
“During the exercise, U.S. and Filipino soldiers trained side by side, shared professional skills, improved interoperability, fostered friendship, and enhanced our combat capabilities in the Indo-Pacific and jungle environments,” Evans said at the exercise’s opening ceremony.