- Due to the vast distance in the Pacific region and the increasing reach of Chinese troops, the U.S. It has led him to find ways to disperse his forces and their bases.
- U.S. For the Air Force, that means screwing into the area for runways and facilities that could support its aircraft as they try to spread and sustain potential combat operations.
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The prospect of war with China, which has rapidly modernized armies that could reach farther and farther into the Pacific, has led the U.S. The army thinks of spreading.
According to Pacific Air Force Commander General Kenneth Willsbeck, U.S. For the Air Force, that means hitting the field for new places to work, but instead building new bases.
“What we’re doing is taking advantage of existing airfields,” Wilsbach told reporters last week. “If you’re going to drop [in] F-22 or F-15 or C-130, the airfield needs to have certain criteria, and so we’ve actually studied every piece of concrete in the Pacific and Indo-Pacific … to see if they’ll be found. Our criteria. “
Plans for a campaign base were developed by Air Force Brass in the 1990s, and a new focus is being placed on strategy.
The U.S. Airman of Japan’s Kadena Air Base prepares an F-15 for takeoff during a brisk combat employment exercise at Fort Greeley, Alaska, on August 8, 2019.
US Air Force / Senior Airman Isaac Johnson
“We actually started working on this very diligently about four to five years ago,” Wilsbach said. “I was the commander in Alaska at the time … we actually got this entry into Alaska first and then it spread across the Indo-Pacific.”
The 2018 National Defense Strategy named Russia and China as the US’s main strategic rivals – later, he said, “will continue the program of military modernization to achieve Indo-Pacific regional hegemony in the near term and displacement of the United States … in the future.”
The type of conflict described in that document “cannot be fixed bases, infrastructural facilities and established command and control,” meaning the Air Force needs to return to its “campaign origins,” General David Goldfinch, then a senior Air Force official, said in a 2018 speech. .
That ambition is reflected in the Agile Combat Employment, which operates in a relatively short period of time to refuel, rear and relaunch without a support network operated by the main bases, or centers of aircraft, general locations or spokes.
“Instead of having some … really large bases, we disperse the forces and we become much more agile and much more mobile,” Wilsbach said, adding that “ible doubles” would allow pilots and pilots. Come and go with what the opponent feels like.
U.S. Marine Corps Lance CPL Nug Gullez tests the JP8 fuel during the Apple Combat Employment Exercise on February 20, 2020 at the Futenma Marine Corps Air Station in Japan.
US Air Force / Staff Sergeant. David Ovisanka
The ACE has been around for some time, and “almost every exercise” command now has an ACE component, Willsbach said. During the Exercise Valiant Shield in September, Airman enhanced it with additional duties.
“We had F-22s going, we call it Base X, so a hub base … [to] “Refuel, and they also practiced what we call multi-skilled airmen,” Willsbach said. “You can send a small team to one of the out-bases and instead of being an airman they do, say, refuel a plane. We asked them to learn a lot of skills.”
Being able to do multiple tasks means that fewer people are needed on the spokesperson, but being flexible means it can also be tough, Wilsbach said.
“When I was in Alaska, we did this, literally, with an open base, and everyone pitched in tents,” said Willsbach, who was eating store-bought tents and MRE next to the runway, Willsbach said. “We operated from that bare base for two weeks.”
‘Lots of competition’
March 6, 2019, U.S. during an Agile Combat Employment Exercise at Anderson Air Force Base in Guam. And a fellow employee.
US Air Force / Master Surge. JT May III
Wilsbach did not elaborate on those centers and spokespersons or plans for where they might be, but the Air Force and other service branches are practicing working in wider parts of the Pacific.
There are territories in that region of the U.S. – such as Guam, which has a major air force, and the Northern Marina Islands – but some countries are also keen to host.
The outgoing president of Palau has repeatedly encouraged the U.S. military to increase facilities there. Wilsbach has expressed a “desire to increase options” in Pa Pala Lau, where airfields are well located, but the expansion will take “a little more work”.
Poulau, along with Micronesia and the Marshall Islands, With free association compacts, under which their citizens can travel to the U.S. Benefits in and U.S. The military has the right to work on its territory.
Airman at Anderson Air Force Base unloads the C-130 to establish a base of operations during the March 6, 2019, Eagle combat employment exercise.
US Air Force / Master Surge. JT May III
The Pacific Air Force regularly assesses locations in the “Indo-Pacific region” for “Operational, Training and Exercise Objectives” and “Regular” trains for the Northern Marina Islands, Federated States of Micronesia and Palau, a public affairs officer. Told the insider for the command.
According to Derek Grossman, senior defense analyst at RAND Corporation’s think tank, interest in the field is growing due to the convenience of such a hub-spoke model Dell and its proximity to both sides of the Pacific.
“You want to be able to provide power as you would be able to develop potential war theaters – the South China Sea, the Taiwan Strait – and China to advance its ballistic and cruise missiles and other capabilities. You want to be able to.” Put it down, ”Grossman told Insider in an October interview.
It is not getting lost on China, which has sued its countries for furthering its military and diplomatic goals.
“That’s why there’s been a lot of competition between the US and China in this area lately,” Grossman said.
