The Obama administration is considering increasing the size of the US military presence in Asia, according to sources familiar with an ongoing global force posture review as well as early discussions with countries such as Australia, Singapore and Vietnam.
An increase in the US force posture in the Pacific would likely affect the Navy more than any other service.
The force posture review is a follow-up to the administration’s Quadrennial Defense Review released in February and aims to re-evaluate the geographical and strategic placement of US forces around the world.
“The secretary [of defense] asked us to take a look at the trajectory of our posture globally and sort of region-by-region,” a Defense Department official told Inside the Navy.
“If you remember in the QDR we made the statement that instead of having sort of a one-size-fits-all posture we felt like our posture should be more cooperative and more tailored to the regions and the dynamics in each region and the partnerships that we have.
“And so he asked us to sort of take a look to see if there are adjustments that need to be done.”