The US military aims to use troops on the ground to help multinational fleets more accurately guide missiles over longer ranges, an approach that analysts say could be used in the South China Sea. Dr Collin Koh, a Research Fellow at RSIS, said that after years of modernisation, the Chinese military had caught up and even surpassed the US in some areas, and that the US was responding. “The PLA’s missile threat to the US … plays a huge role in the US Navy’s efforts to adjust its forces including in the realm of missile defence,” he added.