Washington: The US Army is developing long-range hypersonic and intermediate-range anti-ship weapons as key components of its emerging strategy in the Western Pacific, the service’s top officer said last week.

These changes include establishing joint all-domain task forces, the Army’s largest transformation in 40 years, Gen. James McConville said on July 31 at an online forum sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

The transformation “is not just new equipment” like long-range precision weapons and achieving long-range effects, but ensuring the Army’s warfighting doctrine “is synchronized” from air, land and sea to cyber, space and information operations with the other services and allies.

McConville said those types of fundamental changes require a new Army organization structure, like the Army’s Futures Command, and the standing up of the security assistance brigades to work with allies and partners. Inside the Army, he noted the transformation also includes overhauling the personnel management system, so “we’ll get the people we need.”

All these changes “will allow us to have overmatch” against potential adversaries, like China and Russia, McConville said, describing long-range precision fires as his top priority. He added anti-ship missiles and tactical long-range artillery to his top equipment list for the future, as all are important in Indo-Pacific operations.

“We’re experimenting now to tie all our sensors and shooters together,” he said.