By Jen Judson
WASHINGTON — The commander of US Army Pacific is working to preserve funding — while finding savings — for a series of yearly exercises that are designed to build partnerships and to project ready forces in the Asia Pacific region.
Pacific Pathways is a series of three annual exercises typically involving three other countries west of the international dateline as part of the operations and which defines Army presence as "more faces in more places with less bases," Gen. Vincent Brooks told reporters today at a breakfast in Washington.
The exercises, which began in 2014, are a way of reconciling how to project forces amid shrinking resources as part of the Obama administration's mandate to pivot focus to the Pacific Rim.
Brooks said he is trying "to do this in a cost-informed way, where we actually leverage existing funds for exercises."
The effort is funded in the Army's five-year budget plan between fiscal 2018 and 2022, Brooks said, adding, "we are asking to have that preserved."
Brooks said he believes he can conduct Pacific Pathways using about $38 million a year to cover three exercises at about $13 million each.
Pacific Pathways funding in fiscals 2014 and 2015 came from moving money within the command, Brooks explained.
"That was by cost avoidance and cost savings," he said, adding the cost savings are, in a way, inherent to how Pacific Pathways is organized and conducted.
Read the full story at The Diplomat