U.S. to reclaim WWII airfield in Pacific, clearing jungle by summer The U.S. military will make "significant progress" toward reclaiming a World War II-era airfield on the Pacific island of Tinian in the upcoming months, an air force general said, part of an initiative to disperse aircraft across the Indo-Pacific region as China's missile threat continues to grow. The U.S. Air Force is stepping up construction at the Tinian North airfield, once used by the largest B-29 bomber fleet during World War II, and at the Tinian International airfield, Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, commander of the Pacific Air Forces, said in an interview on Wednesday. "If you pay attention in the next few months, you will see significant progress, especially at Tinian North," Wilsbach said. The airfield "has extensive pavement underneath the overgrown jungle. We'll be clearing that jungle out between now and summertime," Wilsbach said, adding that it will be "an extensive" facility once construction is complete. Wilsbach declined to comment on when the airstrip will be operational. Tinian lies about 200 kilometers north of Guam and is part of the Northern Mariana Islands. Revitalizing the outpost is meant to advance the air force's operational strategy known as Agile Combat Employment. It calls for moving aircraft to as many locations as possible in the western Pacific to avoid an enemy's missile strikes in a crisis, a major shift from post-Cold War strategy. "You create a targeting problem, and you may actually take some hits, but you still have preponderance of your forces still creating effect," Wilsbach said of the distributed force posture in a contingency. The U.S. military secured access this year to locations in the Philippines and Papua New Guinea while Washington and Canberra agreed to upgrade infrastructure at two air bases in northern Australia. To advance a free and open Indo-Pacific, the U.S. will build on the momentum of trilateral defense cooperation with Japan and South Korea, Wilsbach said. "It wasn't too long ago where trilateral operations were out of the question," the general said. "Even this year, we have done a few of them already and... some of them that you probably haven't heard of that are ongoing," he continued, indicating the three countries have worked more closely than publicly known. In October, the U.S., Japan and South Korea conducted their first trilateral air drills, marking a major milestone after the leaders of the countries vowed to enhance the defense relations at a Camp David summit in August.
Stop it @stg58! You're making Biden seem like a G.Dubya neocon Warhawk, and Donald tRump look like a peace, love and mung beans love buddy of Putin, Kim, and Xi.
China reached that combined long range missile arsenal that allowed a continuous barrage on the few existing USAF asian bases >>> soooo it started the program to disperse aircraft to many new bases and allow more alert "on the runway" strike aircraft ..... Guam was soooo packed with US transferred aircraft - at one point they were using roadways for parking - no hangers even for the stealth aircraft .....
