nuclear-news

Hawaii Bearing Huge Brunt of U.S. Military Buildup Directed Against China

Hawai’i functions as head of a vast Pacific network of bases and surveillance systems

Jeremy Kuzmarov, CovertAction Magazine Jul 08, 2026 -[ RICHLY ILLUSTRATED]

Hawai’i functions as head of a vast Pacific network of bases and surveillance systems, though expiration of military base leases in 2029 offers an opportunity to convert its land to more sustainable uses

n December 2025, Hawaiian Congressman Ed Case (D) issued a press release announcing his support for the $900 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which included $1 billion for military construction projects in Hawai’i.

The projects included a new drydock for the Pearl Harbor naval shipyard, ship support upgrades at the Pearl Harbor-Hickham Base, replacement of the main gate at Marine Corps Base Hawai’i and airfield improvement at the Pacific Missile Range facility.

Case gave a speech before Congress last year asserting that Chinese Premier Xi Jinping was cheering on Republicans who voted against funding the Ukraine War because they were supposedly playing into Xi’s ambitions to establish Chinese global domination—enabled by an isolationist U.S.

Case’s use of Sinophobic rhetoric to justify an expansion of the U.S. military presence in Hawai’i is matched by Hawai’i’s other Democratic Party congresswoman, Jill Tokuda, who sits on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), a fear-mongering body that has spread alarmist rhetoric and false accusations directed against China reminiscent of the McCarthy era.^[1]

In late May, the Institute for Policy Studies issued a report—co-sponsored by two human rights NGOs (Āina Aloha Economic Futures and Īlioʻulaokalani Coalition), the Hawai’i Sierra Club and Cost of War Project at Brown University—showing the harrowing cost of the U.S. military presence in Hawai’i that is being accelerated because of the New Cold War.

Entitled The True Cost of the U.S. Military in Hawai’i, the report makes clear Hawai’i’s function as a “central node” in U.S. Indo-Pacific war planning dating back to the U.S. government’s illegal overthrow of Queen Lili’uokalani and the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893.

President Grover Cleveland described the 1893 U.S. Hawaiian coup as “an act of war…committed…without authority of Congress.”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The U.S. military currently has more than 107,000 soldiers stationed in Hawai’i and controls an estimated 133 sites, totaling 254,225 acres, plus another 1,017 acres operated by the Hawai’i National Guard……………

The U.S. Pacific Fleet (PACFLT), headquartered at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPHH), is the largest naval command in the world, responsible for miles of ocean, nearly 200 ships, 1,700 aircraft and more than 225,000 sailors and Marines.

Additional key military/intelligence facilities include:

1. the Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputing Site on Haleakalā;
2. the Ka’ena Point Space Force Station on O’ahu;
3. Navy tracking facilities associated with the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) on Kaua’I;
4. a Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station (NCTAMS); and
5. a National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) regional signals intelligence center where Edward Snowden worked.^[4]

Kyle Kajihiro^[5] and Neta Crawford^[6] reported in January that the U.S. Navy proposed an increase in bombing of Ka’ula (an island and seabird sanctuary off Ni’ihau), an increase in training at sea around Hawai’i and California, an increase in the use of underwater explosives, and a higher authorized “take” of marine species.

The U.S. Army has further expanded its training with other countries in Hawai’i through the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center.

These initiatives will only compound the already devastating consequences of the U.S. military presence in Hawai’i chronicled in The True Cost of the U.S. Military in Hawai’i, which estimates that the Pentagon owes Hawai’i between $32.8 billion and $133.7 billion in unpaid rent.

Since 1964, the U.S. military has leased tens of thousands of acres of public trust land in Hawai’i for the token fee of $1 per year.

The above estimate does not include billions in additional costs to clean up environmental damage caused by the U.S. military and destruction of cultural and archeological sites……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. https://covertactionmagazine.com/2026/07/07/hawaii-bearing-huge-brunt-of-u-s-military-buildup-directed-against-china/

July 13, 2026 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, weapons and war