The U.S. Army is planning a long-term strategy when it comes to dealing with disinformation. A new unit, part of U.S. Army Pacific, is tasked with taking on information warfare from enemies, with a goal rapidly responding and debunking influence campaigns in the region.

Earlier this month the Army officially activated the 1st Theater Information Advantage Detachment, or 1st TIAD, and this past week shared additional details on the nature of the unit and how it will operate. Based out of Fort Shafter, Hawaii, the 1st TIAD comprises 65 soldiers across five teams, specializing in “cyber, intelligence, psychological operations, public affairs, electronic warfare, civil affairs, and information operations,” according to the Army. 

U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said that the 1st TIAD is meant to “counter malign influence, protect friendly information, strengthen cooperation with key partners, and promote regional stability.” Essentially, when influence campaigns can be nearly as important as military positioning and logistics, the unit has to win the information and public affairs war. Col. Sean Heidgerken, the new unit’s commander, said that the 1st TIAD is “designed to maneuver within the information environment and maintain positions of advantage.”

“Our mission is clear: to enable USARPAC to sense, understand, decide, and act faster than any adversary while strengthening cooperation with our allies and partners throughout the region,” Heidgerken said.

The U.S. military has tried to massively overhaul its strategy and presence in the Pacific in recent years, as part of a wider shift from years of counterinsurgency as a focus to potential peer-on-peer conflict. That includes reviving old bases, staging large exercises with partners in the region and shifting significant air power to the western Pacific, to deal with potential threats from nations such as North Korea or China. Lt. Gen. Joel Vowell, who serves as Deputy Commanding General of U.S. Army Pacific, specifically singled out China as an adversary in terms of how 1st TIAD will operate.

“When Beijing spreads disinformation claiming the U.S. is an unreliable partner, the 1st TIAD helps craft truthful counter-narratives that expose these contradictions and reinforce our credibility,” Vowell said at the activation ceremony, per Indo-Pacific Command.

Vowell also highlighted the scale of where the 1st TIAD will operate. He pointed to the sheer size of the Indo-Pacific, noting it is “home to 60 percent of the world’s population” and called it the “the epicenter of 21st-century geopolitics.”

It is the latest unit stood up as part of a wider move by the U.S. military to try and adapt to modern electro-magnetic and intelligence warfare tactics, after years of struggling to keep up with changing technologies. The U.S. Space Force has been working to quickly launch intelligence-gathering satellites and set up terrestrial-based jamming systems. Earlier this year, the National Guard created the 111th Electromagnetic Warfare Company, part of the Georgia National Guard’s 221st Intelligence and Electronic Warfare Battalion. That unit, made up of four platoons, is the first of several planned for the Army that will focus on direct electronic warfare. The Army, meanwhile, deactivated its 1st Information Operations Command this year, even as it stands up new units meant to operate in similar fields.

Two more Theater Information Advantage Detachments are planned to activate next year, with the 2nd TIAD falling under Army Cyber Command while the 3rd TIAD will be a part of U.S. Army Europe and Africa. 

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