Air Force clearing out jungles in Pacific

[Whiterook]

WWII saw the need of building air bases to launch strikes from in the Pacific Theater, as it waged an ugly island hopping campaign with Imperial Japan. WWI didn’t hold a candle to that tactic; and wars after probably didn’t have anywhere near the need, though I am positive that the United States continued to build airbases where needed.

Currently however, the U.S. Air Force clearing out jungles in Pacific to bolster airfield options, “…but additional funding for these efforts may be held up by budget impasse on Capitol Hill”, a Pacific Air Forces commander says in a recent article in Defense One…

The U.S. Air Force is finding ways to increase the number of airfields it can take off from in the Pacific—and wants more money to build out airfields and rebuild overgrown WWII airfields.

Adding bases is key to the service’s Agile Combat Employment concept, or ACE, which aims to keep combat aircraft flying despite enemy attacks, Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, Pacific Air Forces Commander, told reporters Monday at the Air & Space Forces Association’s annual Air, Space & Cyber conference.

The Air Force is currently clearing out a jungle on Tinian, a small island near Guam that was home to the largest B-29 bomber base during World War II and more recently has hosted ACE exercises.

“We're going to be clearing out the jungle [and] we're going to be resurfacing some of the surfaces there so that we will have a fairly large and very functional Agile Combat Employment base, an additional base to be able to operate from and we have several other projects like that around the region that we'll be getting after. That takes resources to be able to accomplish and so those are some of the resources that I argue for when I go back to the headquarters,” Wilsbach said.

The service has requested additional money for ACE construction in its 2024 budget request, Wilsbach said, but Congress is unlikely to pass the defense bills before the new fiscal year begins on Oct. 1. Even if lawmakers approve a continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown, the CR is unlikely to allow the new spending.

“There's additionally new munitions that I'm very interested in that we're purchasing in the [20]24 budget if approved. And then modernization—there's some modernization for some of our current platforms that are very critical for maintaining dominance in some of our mission areas because while we have been doing a lot of things in the Middle East in the last 20 years, China's been resourcing for near-peer competition,” Wilsbach said.


_{— Defense One}

This makes for interesting pondering in game design. It’s a volatile time in current day, real world global dynamics, but this is every bit as applicable in plotting out a storyboard for new and current “WWIII” wargames. Say, North Korea escalates to conflict with Japan… how would the US respond, or the UK, or any NATO country? What would happen if the need for more airbases present itself? Is that what we’re seeing now?

Interesting stuff!

[Whiterook]

China is certainly not far behind! …ignoring that is a recipe for disaster, in my opinion

China has been building up its own Pacific airfields, practicing to repair runways damaged by air strikes, and sharpening its ability to disrupt U.S. logistics and communications.

Wilsback said the Air Force is working on how it can harden comms and logistics and is forming backup plans in case, he said.

The additional U.S. bases will be part of a “hub-and-spoke” system, he said.

“A year ago we had fewer options for hubs and spokes than we do today. And so it's it's slower than I'd like it to be, but it's still expanding and every single additional airfield that I can operate from is another in a contingency or crisis or a conflict is another airfield that China has to put into their targeting folders and, and then allocate resources toward them, which dilutes their ability to shut us completely down,” he said.

On Monday, Wilsbach released “PACAF Strategy 2030: Evolving Airpower,” —which outlines four operational priorities for the Pacific: “enhance warfighting advantage; advance theater posture; strengthen alliances and partnerships; and shape the information environment.”

“We want to continue to evolve so that we enhance our warfighting capabilities with the primary objective of being to deter violence in the Indo-Pacific, but if that deterrence doesn't work, we have to be ready to be able to win. And so the way that we will be doing that is modernizing our force,” he said.

Wilsback said China’s 5th-generation Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter would be of limited use in a Chinese attempt to invade Taiwan. Taipei should be more concerned about China’s H-6 bombers that can drop weapons on Taiwan, as well as PLA ballistic and cruise missiles, he said.

He added that while China has done “good work” at stealing technology from the West and putting it in its J-20, Chinese fighter pilots so far lack “prowess like an American fighter pilot.”

“That being said, they are improving. They've proven they've improved a lot over the last few decades. China writ large is trying their best to improve themselves by improving their training scenarios,” Wilsbach said.

The general also mentioned China’s attempts to hire Western pilots and air crews to train them. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown recently released a memo warning airmen that “foreign companies are targeting and recruiting U.S. and NATO-trained military talent across specialties and career fields to train the PLA abroad to fill gaps in their military capabilities.”

“They're reaching out to try to improve themselves and so they are getting better,” Wilsbach said.


_{— Defense One}

[Whiterook]

Just how many could be interesting to see, as and if this develops.

The U.S. Air Force will increase its number of bases across the Pacific over the next decade, in an effort to spread out and become more survivable in conflict.

The service’s bases “will grow in increments that are visible through time, across probably two or three [future years defense programs] as we work through that,” said Brig. Gen. Michael Zuhlsdorf, the service’s deputy director of resource integration for engineering, logistics, and force protection.

But the total number of bases is dependent on how much funding the Air Force receives, Zuhlsdorf said Tuesday at the Mitchell Institute.

“You think about island chains that are either in the first island chain, there are some bases that are already set there, and then the second island chain, which is basically Guam, and all of those regions in there and so there's a number of different airfields that we're working through, and based on the resourcing that number will shift,” Zuhlsdorf said.

The Air Force has done analyses to figure out which bases could be used to “generate an air tasking order” based on the number of “spokes” in the area, Zuhlsdorf said. The service uses the term “hub-and-spoke” to describe bases in its Agile Combat Employment concept, or ACE, which was created to make the service more mobile in the Pacific.

In the ACE concept, a few airfields serve as central ports, or hubs, while several smaller airfields serve as spokes. The idea is to be able to distribute weapons and assets over a large area and to increase survivability, versus just having a few large airfields throughout the geographically enormous region.

But while there is general direction on ACE in the Pacific—where the concept originated—the service is leaving it up to individual commanders to institutionalize the concept, said Col. James Hartle, associate director of logistics, deputy chief of staff for logistics, engineering, and force protection.

“We really allow our units to try and define that for themselves. We've got a little bit of overarching guidance, now from the air staff to try to formalize the training for that, but ultimately we are putting the onus on our commanders [who] are in the field to execute their mission the best way that they know how, and obviously allowing us to get their requirements and working through that organized training and equipping element a little bit,” Hartle said.

Implementing the concept in the Pacific will look different from unit to unit, Hartle said, as each has different weapon systems and different locations they’ll be operating from.

“I think it's really a unique way that ACE has kind of evolved in really allowing the units to execute, grab those lessons learned, provide some guidance, but not so directive in nature that the left-right boundaries to do that are so tight that it's ineffective,” Hartle said.

The service has also been practicing its ACE concept outside of the Pacific—like when it recently surged fighters to U.S. Central Command to combat Russian aggression, said Col. Patrick Launey, chief of the logistics readiness division.

“We look at operations in Europe and the Middle East recently, CENTCOM and EUCOM, where the United States Air Force and Space Force was providing support. There were a lot of situations where we were employing aspects of agile combat employment into how we were going to posture and conduct operations,” Launey said.

_{— Defense One}