Winston
Lorenzo von Matterhorn
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Air Force To Build Alternate Airbase On Tinian Island In Case Guam Gets Knocked Out
With the threat of China rising, the Pentagon is looking for new airfields and to expand existing ones for distributed operations in the Pacific.
DECEMBER 1, 2020
www.thedrive.com
According to reports, the Department of Defense is moving ahead with plans to formally build a backup air base at Tinian Island, located just 100 miles to the north of its giant and highly strategic U.S. military airbase on Guam, known as Andersen Air Force Base. This comes as the Pentagon is working to expand its existing airfields located deep in the Pacific and even create new ones that it could use during a major peer-state clash, namely with China, in the vast region. It is all part of an emerging distributed combat operations strategy that will likely be as much about survival as about getting an advantage on the enemy, at least during the opening stages of a potential conflict in the Pacific Theater. Anderson Air Force Base is so key to U.S. strategy that the possibility that a natural disaster could knock out flight operations in the entire region is also a driving factor behind this initiative.
While Guam isn't as at risk of adversary missile attacks as America's military outposts located in Japan, or even South Korea, its ability to continue operating during a barrage of ever more plentiful and capable Chinese ballistic missiles is highly questionable at best, leaving alternative airfields both nearby and far away, absolutely critical to a sustained a war effort. Wake Island, which is located 1,500 miles east of Guam, is the largest such installation. You can read about the upgrades to that remote island outpost in this recent feature of ours.
However, that base on Wake Island will be more about staging airpower as a conflict heats up, not just with dealing with dislocated airpower in the opening stages of an attack. This is where new developments at Tinian Island will come into play.
Tinian, which is now part of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI), a U.S. territory, was seized from the Japanese by U.S. forces in the summer of 1944 during the twilight of World War II. It became home to a huge and historic airfield located on the northern stretch of the island. It is from this base, called North Field, that two B-29 bombers, modified to carry atomic bombs as part of Operation Silverplate, flew separate sorties that would comprise the only operational uses of nuclear weapons to date. These missions were in addition to waves of bomber and reconnaissance runs that flew over Japan and around the Western Pacific from the island during the later stages of the war.
Tinian 1945:
Tinian now:
Looks a bit like a diorama because of the foreground being in focus and the distant items blurred, but they are blurred by hot jet exhaust, not due to camera depth of field issues:
Major Airfield Expansion On Wake Island Seen By Satellite As U.S. Preps For Pacific Fight
America's remote island outpost in the Pacific is an essential fallback point for pushing airpower west during a major conflict.
JULY 3, 2020
www.thedrive.com
With the threat of China rising, the Pentagon is looking for new airfields and to expand existing ones for distributed operations in the Pacific.
DECEMBER 1, 2020
Air Force To Build Alternate Airbase On Tinian Island In Case Guam Gets Knocked Out
With the threat of China rising, the Pentagon is looking for new airfields and to expand existing ones for distributed operations in the Pacific.
www.thedrive.com
According to reports, the Department of Defense is moving ahead with plans to formally build a backup air base at Tinian Island, located just 100 miles to the north of its giant and highly strategic U.S. military airbase on Guam, known as Andersen Air Force Base. This comes as the Pentagon is working to expand its existing airfields located deep in the Pacific and even create new ones that it could use during a major peer-state clash, namely with China, in the vast region. It is all part of an emerging distributed combat operations strategy that will likely be as much about survival as about getting an advantage on the enemy, at least during the opening stages of a potential conflict in the Pacific Theater. Anderson Air Force Base is so key to U.S. strategy that the possibility that a natural disaster could knock out flight operations in the entire region is also a driving factor behind this initiative.
While Guam isn't as at risk of adversary missile attacks as America's military outposts located in Japan, or even South Korea, its ability to continue operating during a barrage of ever more plentiful and capable Chinese ballistic missiles is highly questionable at best, leaving alternative airfields both nearby and far away, absolutely critical to a sustained a war effort. Wake Island, which is located 1,500 miles east of Guam, is the largest such installation. You can read about the upgrades to that remote island outpost in this recent feature of ours.
However, that base on Wake Island will be more about staging airpower as a conflict heats up, not just with dealing with dislocated airpower in the opening stages of an attack. This is where new developments at Tinian Island will come into play.
Tinian, which is now part of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI), a U.S. territory, was seized from the Japanese by U.S. forces in the summer of 1944 during the twilight of World War II. It became home to a huge and historic airfield located on the northern stretch of the island. It is from this base, called North Field, that two B-29 bombers, modified to carry atomic bombs as part of Operation Silverplate, flew separate sorties that would comprise the only operational uses of nuclear weapons to date. These missions were in addition to waves of bomber and reconnaissance runs that flew over Japan and around the Western Pacific from the island during the later stages of the war.
Tinian 1945:
Tinian now:
Looks a bit like a diorama because of the foreground being in focus and the distant items blurred, but they are blurred by hot jet exhaust, not due to camera depth of field issues:
Major Airfield Expansion On Wake Island Seen By Satellite As U.S. Preps For Pacific Fight
America's remote island outpost in the Pacific is an essential fallback point for pushing airpower west during a major conflict.
JULY 3, 2020
Major Airfield Expansion On Wake Island Seen By Satellite As U.S. Preps For Pacific Fight
America's remote island outpost in the Pacific is an essential fallback point for pushing airpower west during a major conflict.
www.thedrive.com
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