U.S. defense bill calls for assessing capabilities to quickly deploy forces to Korean Peninsula

The U.S. defense budget bill for next year calls for the government auditor to assess the U.S. Transportation Command's capabilities to rapidly deploy forces to the Korean Peninsula from the mainland U.S. and elsewhere.

The House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness included the assessment requirement in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 (H.R. 4909), citing "new and increasingly threatening dynamics," according to congressional records.

"U.S. and Republic of Korea forces train and plan together to deter and defeat aggression emanating from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. As a result of this longstanding alliance, operational and contingency plans have been codified, coordinated, and exercised," the subcommittee said in the bill.

"Over time those plans have evolved to meet changing conditions, enhance readiness, and strengthen the alliance's ability to defend the Republic of Korea and maintain stability on the Korean Peninsula," it said.

Plans for rapidly reinforcing U.S. forces already on the peninsula would require the U.S. Transportation Command to undertake the rapid movement to the Korean Peninsula of forces and capabilities currently located in the continental United States and elsewhere, it added.

The bill requires the comptroller general, who heads the Government Accountability Office, to assess the factors affecting the command's ability to carry out its wartime mission with respect to operations on the Korean Peninsula and the extent to which the command's plans and capabilities are postured to support the outbreak of hostilities on the peninsula.

Also to be assessed were the readiness of the command's air, land and sea assets to carry out its wartime mission and any other issues the comptroller general determines appropriate with respect to the command's support of operations on the peninsula.

The committee also directed the comptroller general to provide a briefing to the House Armed Services Committee no later than February 1 on the preliminary findings and to submit a final report to the congressional defense committees at a later date. (Yonhap)