Technology changes; faster, more accurate, deadlier, more automated, more expensive. These things and more will always advance. What remains a constant is, like we covered last week, geography.
The last time we had a serious challenge in the Pacific, WWII, we had a whole constellation of bases that allowed us to fight forward, sustain forward, repair forward, and keep in the fight.
If we are to do this again, we and our allies don’t have to start with a blank slate on how to fight for years and win – the template is there;
Australia and Papua New Guinea have completed first steps and begun major refurbishment of a navy base built by U.S. forces on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, during World War II.
The upgrades at Lombrum Naval Base are part of a deal the two countries reached in 2018. It gives Australian forces access to the strategically vital deep-water port while slamming the door on Chinese ambitions to gain a foothold on the island, The Australian newspaper reported at the time.
A chapel, medical facility and security fencing have been built and a communication center has been upgraded since work began in mid-2020, the Australian Defence Department said in an email Nov. 24.
U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro visited Manus in late October and met sailors assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 5, which deployed to the island to build a dental facility, according to posts on the battalion’s Facebook page in September and October.
Manus is an 800-square-mile rock in the Bismarck Sea north of New Britain. It is just over 1,000 miles south of Guam, where Marines are scheduled to relocate from Okinawa, and 1,300 miles east of Darwin, which hosts a 2,500-strong U.S. Marine Corps rotational force.
Here is what she looked like in WWII.
Here she is today.
Not completely turnkey … but close.
None of this happens overnight, heck we are three years in at this point at Manus. I know that this continues to grow in importance so we should – hopefully – expect more in this area.
A final note. Take a look at this pic from the superb harbor at Manus in 1945.
If we want to fight and win in WESTPAC, we need these, in number. Raise your hand if you’d like to see some new construction floating dry docks that we can move wherever we need them. Funny little trivia detail; ABSD-4 is still at Lombrum … though sadly partially sunk in a sad little cove.
