How a new US Army unit could challenge the PLA’s area-denial strategy in a Taiwan conflict

The United States Army has launched a new task force aimed at countering Chinese efforts to block American and allied warships and aircraft in a potential conflict.

The 4th Multi-Domain Task Force (MDTF) – established at Fort Carson, Colorado on October 8 – is the latest addition to a series of specialised formations developed for operations in the western Pacific.

Those formations were earlier activated in Washington state, Germany and Hawaii.

The new unit includes nearly 2,100 soldiers and reports to the 7th Infantry Division, also known as Multi-Domain Command – Pacific, which was established in June.

A 2024 US Army plan envisages five MDTFs worldwide, three of them assigned to the US Army Pacific.

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Pacific-focused MDTFs are designed to deploy elements to forward positions across the Indo-Pacific, where their mobile, land-based capabilities could pose a threat to Chinese military assets.

While the latest announcement gave no timetable for deploying elements of the fourth MDTF to the region – or details on whether it has received systems such as the Typhon missile system – the Pacific-focused task forces share a clear strategic purpose.

The aim is to challenge what Western military analysts describe as Beijing’s anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) approach – a strategy aimed at keeping enemy forces at bay and preventing foreign intervention.

At the heart of this approach, analysts say, is a network combining Chinese long-range missiles, advanced radar, satellites, surveillance systems and military communications that could be used to detect and target opposing forces, potentially making outside intervention more difficult and costly for American and allied forces confronting the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

MDTFs are specifically tailored to counter this defensive shield. By integrating long-range precision weapons with intelligence, cyber, space and electronic warfare capabilities, these units aim to identify targets, disrupt enemy systems and launch strikes from dispersed positions on land.

Major General Bernard J. Harrington, commander of Multi-Domain Command – Pacific, described how the US Army was developing this approach, saying in June that his command intended to use unmanned vessels, long-range attack drones and other capabilities to penetrate an adversary’s A2/AD network.

“Every radar that emits, every node that transmits, every headquarters that commands, we aim to hold continuously at risk alongside our joint partners and allies,” he said.

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Chinese radars and satellites could detect approaching US warships and aircraft, allowing commanders to direct missile attacks against them. MDTFs would aim to disrupt this process by locating Chinese radars, command facilities and missile launchers, interfering with their communications through cyber and electronic warfare, and striking key targets with land-based missiles.

If successful, such attacks could make it harder for Chinese forces to track and strike American and allied ships and aircraft, giving them greater freedom to operate in the region.

The US missile launchers behind such attacks could themselves be difficult to find, requiring the PLA to “expend considerable effort to locate and track enemy forces”, said Timothy Heath, a China expert and head of defence consultancy Perceptum.

He said mobile missile launchers could be concealed in vegetation or built-up areas, whereas warships were easier to detect at sea. Beijing would also have to remain alert to the possibility that “a hidden unit may launch a surprise attack”.

Earlier formations have already tested some of the concept’s elements in the region. During the Valiant Shield exercises in Palau in June 2024, the Hawaii-based 3rd MDTF joined other US Army personnel in firing Precision Strike Missiles from an unmanned launcher at a moving maritime target.

The 1st MDTF deployed the Typhon mid-range missile system to the Philippines in 2024. This year, the 3rd MDTF sent Typhon launchers and Himars rocket artillery to Japan’s Kanoya Air Base for exercises.

Beijing has strongly opposed such deployments. In May, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun called Typhon a “strategic offensive weapon” and warned that deploying it to Japan would increase the risk of military confrontation and an arms race in the region.

Japan could be especially important to the US Army’s plans. Its southwestern islands stretch towards Taiwan, potentially offering positions for mobile missiles and sensors, while the Philippines provides possible locations to the island’s south.

Yet, unlike warships operating in international waters, land-based missile units depended on host-country permission and were constrained by their deployment locations, Heath said. He warned that their presence in Japan or the Philippines could lead PLA planners to consider strikes on allied territory, potentially widening a Taiwan conflict.

Michael M. Bosack, director of the Parley Policy Institute, said Japan’s willingness to allow US missile operations would depend on the circumstances of a Taiwan conflict and Tokyo’s legal and political constraints.

He said the “largest political hurdle” would be declaring one of Japan’s legally defined security situations – “something that has never been done before” – and that the allies should agree on operational requirements and exercise their plans beforehand.

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The US Army’s 2024 plan said some MDTF elements, including long-range strike units, could eventually be based permanently in allied countries, though no such arrangement has yet been announced for the newly activated task force.

Those uncertainties matter because the formations are designed to act early in a crisis. Lieutenant Colonel Ben Blane and two fellow US Army officers warned in a March analysis for West Point’s Modern War Institute that MDTFs needed forward positions, intelligence networks, host-nation relationships and logistical support established before conflict erupted – arrangements that could not be rushed into place from the United States.

For Beijing, the activation of another MDTF points to a growing American effort to threaten Chinese military assets from land as well as sea and air. But whether the new formation could influence a Taiwan conflict will depend on getting its capabilities into position.

Without forces positioned to influence a Taiwan conflict from the outset, “the army risks becoming a spectator in the Indo-Pacific’s most consequential fight”, Blane and his co-authors warned.