With the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and the Middle East in its final stages, the House Armed Services Committee held a series of hearings to discuss the next major strategic move of the country's military might: the Asia pivot.
Stars and Stripes reported that several Congressmen on the committee voiced their concerns over a China grown economically and militarily confident and the need for U.S. forces to protect the interests of various allies in the region.
"The trajectory for our relationship with China is uncertain today, where we're going to go in the future," said Frank Kendall, an advisor to the Secretary of Defense. "One of the reasons we're focused on the Asia Pacific is we want to do our best to influence that trajectory to go in a positive way."
Part of that uncertainty comes from a lack of hard intelligence on China's military capabilities. In 2012, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) published a report that cast doubt on the reported figures of China's military spending. While China itself reports that it spent over $100 billion on its armed forces, the SIPRI report alleges that contributions from other branches of government most likely push that number upwards of 50 percent higher.
With a lack of details surrounding the U.S.'s role as a player in the Pacific, many see the rebalancing of armed forces as the first step in securing that future.