Breaking Defense:

The first moves to build an Aegis Ashore missile defense system on Guam could come in the 2022 defense budget, part of the US military’s efforts to beef up defenses for Pacific places likely to endure a first strike by Chinese forces.

Several sources familiar with the Pentagon’s budget discussions say there’s a push to fund the early work on placing the missile defense system on the island, an effort that current Indo-Pacom commander Adm. Phil Davidson has called his No. 1 priority.

In the days before Joe Biden was sworn in as president, then-Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller signed off on a plan to begin Aegis work on Guam, but no money had been moved within the DoD to fund it. The project is currently being reviewed by the Pentagon’s Comptroller.

Davidson met with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Deputy Secretary Kath Hicks at the Pentagon on his trip to Washington earlier this month, and “there’s certainly questions going around from Austin’s team,” about putting an Aegis on Guam, one person with knowledge of the situation said.

The Aegis request was a part of the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, a five-year, $27 billion proposal Davidson submitted to Congress earlier this month to build a string of networked, allied training ranges, improve missile defenses, and revamp complicated logistics lines across the Pacific…

Click here to read the full article.