The commander of the Indo-Pacific Command has warned Congress that the danger of war with China is growing and the U.S. military urgently needs new arms and capabilities to prevent a conflict, according to a report to Congress obtained by The Washington Times.
Adm. Sam Paparo, the top American military commander for forces that stretch from the U.S. West Coast to India, urged Congress to approve $67.4 billion for new missiles and $18 billion to counter Chinese military control systems, $15 billion for a space-based missile warning system and battlefield surveillance sensors, and $2.3 billion for maritime, underwater and ground-based drone weapons.
The commander’s report is a stark, independent military assessment, first required under the fiscal 2021 defense legislation and repeated annually for an ongoing program called the Pacific Deterrence Initiative.
None of the annual assessments has been released publicly by either the command or the Pentagon. A copy of the latest assessment, dated April 6, was obtained by The Washington Times.
An Indo-Pacific Command spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.
The assessment includes details of weapons-buying plans and identifies numerous systems that remain secret, are under development or were only recently disclosed, including advanced electronic warfare tools and hypersonic missiles.
The April 6 report to Congress is an unclassified summary intended to guide Congress in fashioning the fiscal 2027 defense spending bill.
The Pentagon is requesting $1.45 trillion: $1.1 trillion in discretionary authority and another $350 billion in mandatory spending.
House and Senate lawmakers are working on the defense legislation.
“The security environment in the Indo-Pacific is becoming more dangerous and defined by an increasing risk of confrontation and crisis,” Adm. Paparo stated in the 221-page report outlining needed weapons, new communications and spy systems, training programs and military infrastructure for the region.
“China’s aggressive military modernization, territorial expansion and deepening relationships with Russia and North Korea present key challenges in an increasingly complex security environment,” the admiral wrote.
China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army, is engaged in a comprehensive “historic expansion” for all types of forces and is training for two main missions: annexing Taiwan and countering U.S. and allied defense capabilities, according to the report.
The PLA was ordered to be ready for military action against the democratic-ruled island by 2027, said Adm. Paparo, echoing warnings from U.S. military leaders of the risks of a future attack.
The report also disclosed that the Pentagon is planning to deploy offensive missiles on Guam, a U.S. western Pacific island and current military hub, where an extensive integrated air and missile defense system is under construction.
As part of a $4.5 billion Pacific Homeland Defense Strategies program, Adm. Paparo requested $909 million for the Guam Defense System, which will be capable of countering Chinese ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles.
Adm. Paparo said the defense system also will “provide the basis for a future offensive capability.” Details of the plans are contained in a special access program and were not listed in the report.
Potential candidates based on existing Army programs could include the Army’s Typhon Mid-Range Capability, which can fire 1,200-mile-range Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles, and the Army’s Dark Eagle long-range hypersonic weapon with a range of up to 1,700 miles.
Both missiles could reach targets in China from Guam.
Chinese state media have openly boasted that the PLA’s DF-26 intermediate-range missile can target Guam and has been dubbed the “Guam Killer” and “Guam Express.”
The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency disclosed in October 2024 that China is expanding its force of DF-26s.
In addition to expensive new precision-guided missiles, the command is seeking to deploy relatively low-cost cruise missiles and a cheap hypersonic missile called Blackbeard.
“Blackbeard is an affordable, long-range, hypersonic strike missile designed to deliver 80% of advanced hypersonic capability at a fraction of the cost,” the report states.
Blackbeard and other hypersonic missiles “will overwhelm adversary integrated air defense systems, create targeting dilemmas and enhance the joint force’s operational effectiveness,” the report said.
Adm. Paparo stated in the report that China’s strategy is not limited to threats of military force. It includes what he called “gray zone” activities involving legal warfare, economic coercion and information war — actions that place “significant pressure on regional allies and partners.”
The latest Pentagon budget request marks a “monumental paradigm shift in resourcing that directly addresses these requirements at the speed and scale necessary to defend the homeland and defeat China’s misaligned strategy,” he said.
Adm. Paparo’s analysis of the threats posed by China contrasts sharply with the Trump administration’s recent conciliatory approach toward Beijing.
Under President Trump’s new approach, the United States, along with China, announced in May a “constructive relationship of strategic stability.”
The U.S. policy seeks better trade relations and increased cooperation in nonsensitive areas while continuing to counter nefarious Chinese activities, such as large-scale hacking and technology theft, and Chinese support for the deadly fentanyl trade.
By contrast with the administration’s drive for improved ties, including access to Chinese rare earth minerals, China views the new relations as recognition of its expanding power and its efforts to advance Chinese socialism globally.
Adm. Paparo said the total $122 billion he requested in fiscal 2027 for new weapons and other military systems and support is “the minimum investments required to sustain credible deterrence and prevail in conflict if deterrence fails.”
The budget for new missiles is the largest single portion of the funding request and includes the purchase of conventional cruise and ballistic missiles, as well as new hypersonic missiles capable of penetrating Chinese defenses.
During recent Senate testimony, Adm. Paparo said the weapons and missiles he needs to be built rapidly are the Mk. 48 advanced heavyweight torpedo, the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range, the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, the Maritime Strike Tomahawk cruise missile, the Precision Strike Missile and the Standard Missile-3 and Standard Missile-6.
A top priority for the command is countering Chinese military command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting, known by the acronym C5ISRT.
The command is requesting more than $18 billion for what the document calls near-term space control capabilities, which are weapons and other capabilities that will “enable U.S. military operations and responses to emerging multi-domain threats and adversaries.”
Space weapons are described in the report only as “special space activities” and are contained in a Pentagon special access program, or SAP, among the most secret programs in government, requiring extraordinary security to prevent enemies from learning about them.
The counter command-and-control buildup will allow the military in the Indo-Pacific to maintain “decision superiority,” Adm. Paparo stated.
Other priorities include unmanned aerial, sea-based and underwater systems that would “create adversary planning dilemmas” — a reference to what Adm. Paparo has called a “hellscape” strategy to deter or defeat the Chinese military.
That strategy calls for deploying thousands of low-cost drones capable of attacking and defeating a Chinese military assault on Taiwan or another regional U.S. partner.
Additional critical munitions, such as more and newer Tomahawk cruise missiles, are a priority, along with upgrading military deployments across a north-south string of islands off the Chinese coast, known as the First Island Chain, and the Second Island Chain, which stretches south from Japan into the western Pacific through the Mariana Islands and Guam to Palau, the report said.
Funding for military exercises and new basing among U.S. allies is also a priority, he stated.
“These requirements are specifically designed to mitigate risk, avoid escalation, improve warfighting proficiency, and ensure the joint force can see, understand, decide, and act faster than our adversaries,” Adm. Paparo said.
The new weapons and systems would help U.S. forces conduct “deterrence by denial” and address long-standing gaps in both kinetic and nonkinetic warfare tools needed to back the administration’s national defense strategy, he said.
Another section of the report calls for the command to acquire an advanced bomb guidance system, Quicksink, for $453 million. The system would upgrade the Air Force’s GPS-guided Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAM.
Quicksink seekers would give the airdropped bombs a torpedo-like strike capability, as the report said, in what it described as a “low-cost, all-weather anti-ship weapon capable of sinking vessels by detonating beneath the waterline to break the ship’s keel.”
The precision bombs would be used to take out China’s numerically superior warships.
“For USINDOPACOM, Quicksink delivers scalable anti-surface warfare capability, enabling rapid air responses to surface threats, increased weapons employment flexibility, and cost-effective mass to counter numerically superior adversary fleets across the Indo-Pacific,” the report said.
The command also wants $531 million for a new high-technology mine called Quickstrike, described as a family of “shallow water, aircraft-laid mines used against surface and subsurface targets.”
The same budget line calls for buying a “clandestine delivered mine” based on a current submarine-launched mine that will be laid by ships, submarines or drones.
Another mine for the command is the modernized Hammerhead mine equipped with advanced remote control and sensors that can classify, detect and destroy ships and submarines with a lightweight torpedo.
The mines play “a critical role in countering underwater threats, strengthening maritime defense, deterring aggressors, and maintaining strategic control over critical waterways,” the report said.
Mine warfare would play a critical role in any defense of Taiwan from a Chinese assault.
The command also plans to set up a new advanced manufacturing system in Hawaii that will help produce replacement parts, make critical components and carry out rapid prototyping and equipment modification.
About $3 billion of the new funds would be used to build key infrastructure in Hawaii, Guam and on Pacific islands, including Wake, Palau, Tinian and Yap, the report said.
For Japan, the report calls for spending $50 million to build an operating base there for extra-large unmanned underwater vehicles and their weapons.
For military artificial intelligence to bolster decision-making, the command wants $107 million. The advanced capability would “enable our commanders, planners, and staff to rapidly synthesize vast amounts of data into actionable insights,” the report said.
Artificial intelligence work will focus on computing power, model deployment and staff training.
The report contains five sections designed to improve military power, increase logistics capabilities, conduct training and exercises, bolster defense cooperation with allies, and upgrade Indo-Pacific Command systems.
Recognizing the current restrained defense strategy of Elbridge Colby, undersecretary of defense for policy, Adm. Paparo said the command is implementing a “denial defense” to limit Chinese territorial expansion and coercion along the First Island Chain.
The denial defense is built on the changing character of warfare, prompting the command to rapidly adapt, Adm. Paparo stated.
Increased military information power, the expansion of drone warfare, the spread of penetrating and precision strike missiles, and other capabilities are forcing the U.S. military to “embrace change” to remain the most powerful military, he said.
“Our approach deters by denial, actively preventing adversaries from achieving their objectives through strong and quiet confidence, integrating information operations as a critical battlespace domain, and demonstrating operational overmatch with a credible, combat-ready force synchronized with allies and partners,” he said.
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