In China's crosshairs: Guam civilians are sitting ducks in an aerial attack
- Admin
- Mar 5
- 4 min read
By Jayvee Vallejera
The 360-degree missile defense shield intended to protect Guam is still nearly a decade away from completion. And as the Middle East conflict now shows, the presence of U.S. bases, instead of protecting allies, actually paints a giant X-mark on their backs that attracts missile and drone attacks.
This makes Guam vulnerable should war break out in the Indo-Pacific region now. With China and North Korea ratcheting up tensions in this part of the world, imagining this region being drawn into open skirmishes is not far-fetched. Any conflict involving the U.S. means Guam would be in the first line of attacks.
Sen. William Parkinson said the current conflict in the Middle East is a sobering reminder that Guam lives in a very different strategic reality than most communities in the United States.
“Our island sits on the front line of the Indo-Pacific, hosts major U.S. military installations, and would inevitably be affected by any major regional conflict,” he said.
China’s DF-26 missile, nicknamed the Guam killer, is specifically designed to hit Guam. Its hypersonic upgrade is even harder to intercept. Guam could have as little as 10 minutes to respond.
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“Ten minutes—long enough to know what's coming but not long enough to do anything about it unless we're prepared," Parkinson said at a public hearing last year.
Major Gen. Michael Cruz, former adjutant general of the Guam National Guard, emphasized Guam’s vulnerability in a recent opinion piece, “The Deluge, the Paper Cup and Washington’s Lack of Urgency on Guam,” published in War on the Rocks.
Cruz warned that Guam is not simply a target but a linchpin and a critical node of U.S. military power in the region.
He said the threat the People’s Liberation Army of China poses to Guam is no longer defined by just a single weapon system. These days, he said, the threat to Guam is multi-domain, including ballistic and cruise missiles, air-delivered standoff strike, sea-based precision fires, cyber operations and space-based spying.
He said the “Guam killer” is just a part of a broader strike complex. China also has H-6K bombers, longer-range ballistic systems, and sea-based cruise missile deployments.
“Guam’s challenge is therefore not surviving a single strike, but withstanding a sustained, multi-domain campaign designed to degrade military and civilian systems simultaneously,” he said.
Cruz said Guam’s defense is—and should remain—a national obligation.
“A crisis in the Taiwan Strait would likely involve missiles capable of reaching Guam in minutes, accompanied by cyber operations aimed at power, water, and communications systems. Ports and supply chains would be strained or disrupted, while hospitals would face demand far beyond peacetime capacity,” he wrote.
Yet Guam’s ability to absorb this onslaught remains limited, Cruz said, pointing out that the missile defense system on Guam is still being built.
The island’s only public hospital is outdated. Civil defense siren coverage is incomplete. Food and fuel reserves are finite. There is no islandwide shelter system capable of protecting the civilian population.
Last year, Parkinson introduced a resolution urging the federal government to fund the construction of civil defense infrastructure on Guam, including hardened public shelters.
But the resolution was defeated by a party-line vote, with all Democratic senators voting in favor and all Republican senators voting against the measure.
He said no substantive objections or alternative proposals were presented on the session floor during the debate.
“Notwithstanding the house rules, I remain open to reconsidering the resolution. Protecting the people of Guam should never be treated as a partisan matter," Parkinson said.
"During the debate, I made clear that I was willing to consider amendments, compromises, or alternative approaches that would advance the goal of civilian protection. Unfortunately, those invitations were not taken up,” he said in an interview with the Pacific Island Times.
As host to the Anderson Air Force Base, Naval Base Guam and the Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz, Guam is the fulcrum for U.S. power projection in the Pacific and is a primary target in potential conflicts.
The Department of War’s 2022 annual report to Congress confirmed that Guam's geography places it within direct range of China's most advanced missiles.
At present, Guam lacks a civilian shelter system capable of protecting the population during a large-scale military contingency. No bomb shelter, no air raid shelters, no place where the community could take refuge from an aerial attack.
While the territory has emergency management planning and warning systems, there is currently no network of hardened shelters comparable to those maintained by many other frontline jurisdictions, such as Taiwan and Okinawa.
“That gap is a vulnerability that I thought deserved serious attention,” Parkinson said.
Parkinson said that Cruz briefed Guam senators at the beginning of last year on the importance of civil defense preparedness and the role hardened shelters could play in protecting Guam’s civilian population. Nothing came of it.
“The fact that the resolution was voted down may send the message that we specifically do not want civilian defense infrastructure, and that's a dangerous message to have sent Washington, D.C.,” Parkinson said.
He said Cruz’s commentary underscores the same concern that was raised during the public hearing.
“Guam’s strategic importance is growing, and so too is the need to ensure the safety of the civilians who live here. I agree that this is an issue Washington should take seriously, and I believe Guam should continue advocating for federal investment in civil defense infrastructure,” he said.
“If there is renewed interest in addressing this vulnerability, I would welcome working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to move forward. The safety of our island community is too important to be left unresolved.”
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