House China Select Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher is requesting information from the United States Army on its efforts to protect an “essential” U.S. territory that remains “highly vulnerable” amid heightened Chinese military aggression, Fox News Digital has learned.
Gallagher, R-Wis., penned a letter to Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital, requesting information on protecting Guam, the westernmost point of the United States.
Guam hosts Naval Base Guam, the Navy’s only submarine base in the western Pacific, as well as Anderson Air Force Base—a large air base that is able to host U.S. strategic bombers and fighters.
“With over 20,000 U.S. troops stationed on the island, Guam will play an essential role in the defense of American allies and interests in the region,” Gallagher wrote to Wormuth. “But despite its strategic importance, Guam remains highly vulnerable to an increasingly sophisticated network of missiles from the People’s Republic of China, especially its cruise missiles.”
Guam is significantly closer to China than Hawaii, Gallagher said, and warned that China has spent “decades developing both short and intermediate-range ballistic missiles that can target Guam and U.S. airfields in Japan, as well as U.S. aircraft carriers and warships operating in the western Pacific.”
Gallagher warned that China also has developed “a formidable inventory of highly capable cruise missiles that can be launched from multiple platforms, including from ships, submarines and bombers.”
“While the United States has developed sea and land-based ballistic missile defense capabilities and sufficient sea-based cruise missile defense capabilities, it has significant gaps in capabilities to defend against PRC cruise missiles attacking land-based targets such as Guam,” Gallagher said.
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