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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Mind the Gaps: Rethinking Landpower in a Maritime Environment |
| 2026-07-23 |
| by Christopher Lee, Jacob Wishko, and Ben Blane [SmallWarsJournal] ABSTRACT The decisive terrain in a Taiwan contingency extends beyond the Taiwan Strait to the maritime gaps of the First Island Chain, where land forces will play a critical role in deterring and contesting Chinese power projection. This article argues that the US and allied land forces are already evolving into a distributed network of sensing, fires, and sustainment designed to secure these key chokepoints. However, to remain effective against a peer adversary, forward-positioned forces must combine resilient network-enabled munitions, modular containerized systems, and distributed logistics to survive and persist inside contested maritime terrain. These capabilities are essential to strengthening deterrence, preserving allied freedom of maneuver, and preventing a strategic breakout into the Pacific region. More at the link |
| Posted by:badanov |