The U.S. will bolster its conventional deterrence against China, including establishing a network of precision-strike missiles along the so-called first island chain and will request a combined $27.4 billion over the next six years for the Indo-Pacific theater, Nikkei has learned. They form the core proposals of the Pacific Deterrence Initiative that the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command has submitted to Congress and which Nikkei has reviewed. "The greatest danger to the future of the United States continues to be an erosion of conventional deterrence," the document said. "Without a valid and convincing conventional ... (full story)