Much wargaming, research, and scholarship has gone into visualizing and describing the contours of major combat operations in a Western Pacific conflict with the Chinese Communist Party. But power projection has dozens of other points of vulnerability. The very weapons, fuel, and repair parts needed to assure victory must arrive at the end of a long vulnerable line of communications that stretches from the U.S. homeland to the weapons engagement zone near Taiwan and Japan, a challenge that concerns quite a few strategists. In previous conflicts, the US has enjoyed the luxury of time to reignite the forges that supply victory. Adversary planning assures us that the U.S. cannot expect a similar opportunity. Viewed as a part of a fluid and interconnected global theater of operations, Alaska’s position in the Arctic-Pacific holds the potential to answer the challenge of contested logistics.
