laststandonzombieisland

Congress recently ponied up a big win for American contingency plans in the Pacific by providing $7.1 billion in support and aid, to be distributed over 20 years, to the Freely Associated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau. These island chains are the remnants of the old post-WWII U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, which were in most cases part of the Empire of Japan before that.

The compacts ensure that the United States can maintain a military presence in the Freely Associated States, and they enable the Compacts’ island citizens to serve in the U.S. military.

As detailed by Air & Space Forces Magazine:

Now, in its most fiscal 2025 budget request, the Air Force has laid out plans to upgrade facilities on the tiny island of Yap, which lies between Guam and Palau, some 1,000 miles southeast of China. Part of the Federated States of Micronesia, Yap comprises just 46 square miles, making it just two-thirds the size of Washington, D.C.

The Air Force wants to invest $400 million to extend its runway in both directions and expand facilities there, beginning with an initial investment of $96 million in 2025.

Meanwhile, Marine F-35s of VMX-1 have been getting the logistics worked out of how to operate the birds from an old 50-foot-wide highway in Southern California. With ordnance and support crews flown in via V-22s, it is a postage stamp-sized operation that could be repeated anywhere a good length of roadway is found– for instance small old airfields around the Pacific Rim.

Speaking of Marines thinking outside of the box when it comes to running operations in likely well-contested forward areas, the Corps is interested in the “autonomous low-profile vessel,” or ALPV, which Gen. Christopher Mahoney, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, describes as an “extremely low-observable,” autonomous, ocean-going ship.

In short, a legit version of the old narco-sub, but with the advantage of being unmanned.