{"id":1791,"date":"2026-04-09T17:55:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T17:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/1791\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T17:55:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T17:55:43","slug":"marines-on-okinawa-will-not-be-deterred-as-they-refine-defense-of-island-chain-general-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/1791\/","title":{"rendered":"Marines on Okinawa will \u2018not be deterred\u2019 as they refine defense of island chain, general says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"Lt.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tLt. Gen. Roger Turner, III Marine Expeditionary Force commander, speaks during a media roundtable discussion at Camp Courtney, Okinawa, Dec. 9, 2025. (Kindsey Calvert\/U.S. Marine Corps)
\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

CAMP COURTNEY, Okinawa \u2014 The Marine Corps is integrating new weapons and refining its island defense strategy alongside Japan to counter any military crisis in the Indo-Pacific region, the Marines\u2019 top general on Okinawa said Tuesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe last thing we want is a confrontation or conflict with China,\u201d Lt. Gen. Roger Turner, commander of the III Marine Expeditionary Force, said at the start of a media roundtable at his headquarters on Courtney. \u201cBut we will not be deterred from continuing work alongside our allies and partners in support of our shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific.\u201d <\/p>\n

Japan reported Sunday that a Chinese J-15 fighter jet launched the previous day from the aircraft carrier Liaoning locked military radar <\/a>on two Japanese F-15s that scrambled in response to potential airspace violations near Okinawa. A radar lock on a potential target can be the precursor to a missile attack.<\/p>\n

The incident is a \u201cgood example of the kinds of activity that we see day-to-day across the region,\u201d Turner told the reporters. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis particular act was more provocative than we have seen recently,\u201d he said. \u201cOver the last few years, we\u2019ve seen these sorts of activities increase exponentially across the region.\u201d <\/p>\n

Turner took command of the expeditionary force<\/a> in January 2024 and oversaw the integration of the 12th Marine Littoral Regiment\u2019s three subordinate units, including logistics, anti-air and combat team elements.<\/p>\n

The regiment\u2019s stand-in force operations are a key tenet of the island-fighting doctrine found in the Marines\u2019 Force Design plan. Littoral regiments are designed as smaller, mobile units inserted within enemy missile range to seize and hold key islands and deny enemy vessels access to surrounding areas. <\/p>\n

The regiment helps the force to \u201cnot only be able to project power from the sea to the land, but our ability to project power from the land to the sea, in the air, and into space \u2014 in cyberspace,\u201d Turner said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what we have learned is that we do have the ability to do that now,\u201d he said. \u201cThat capability is not only resident in the [Marine littoral regiment]. That\u2019s kind of the core capabilities for the broader Marine expeditionary force.\u201d <\/p>\n

During the Resolute Dragon exercise in September, the regiment deployed the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction Syste<\/a>m, or NMESIS, and the Marine Air Defense Integrated System, or MADIS, to Ishigaki island for the first time.<\/p>\n

MADIS \u2014 armed with Stinger missiles, a 30 mm cannon and 7.62 mm machine gun \u2014 is designed to counter low-flying aircraft and armed drones. NMESIS mounts Naval Strike Missiles on joint light tactical vehicles to target ships at sea.<\/p>\n

Turner stressed both systems\u2019 ability to work in conjunction with Japanese weaponry, such as the Type 88 and Type 12 surface-to-ship missile systems. <\/p>\n

Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi reaffirmed his country\u2019s commitment to increasing cooperation with the U.S. in the Nansei islands during a meeting with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, he said in Tokyo during an Oct. 31 news conference. The islands, including Okinawa, stretch from southwest Kyushu to Taiwan. <\/p>\n

Turner said the Marines have worked with Japanese forces to improve their communications, command and control and ability to bring firepower to bear. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat really has been the intense learning that we have done over the last two, three, four years,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I\u2019m happy to report that I think we\u2019re making really good progress on all of those fronts.\u201d <\/p>\n

Stars and Stripes reporter Keishi Koja contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lt. Gen. Roger Turner, III Marine Expeditionary Force commander, speaks during a media roundtable discussion at Camp Courtney,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1508,2093,8,1512,1038,162,1509,2094],"class_list":["post-1791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-okinawa","tag-camp-courtney","tag-iii-marine-expeditionary-force","tag-japan","tag-lieutenant-general","tag-marine-corps","tag-okinawa","tag-roger-turner","tag-usmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}