US expanding Western Pacific Presence

[Albany Rifles]

At one time 15% of the Pacific Service Force's (PSF) vessels were supporting the 20th Air Force operations on Tinian in their bombing campaign against Japan The only reason more fire bombing raids didn't occur was because the PSF couldn't keep up with the demand.

https://www.businessinsider.com/sat...i3lrWKFynUZoJyT9azm6LwWHkLJkD8SQctEA5CWKq4xD4

Satellite photos show how the US Air Force is reclaiming a WWII-era airfield from the jungle to prepare to dodge Chinese missiles

Christopher Woody
Nov 30, 2023, 11:08 AM EST

A US Air Force C-130J takes off from Tinian in February 2018. US Air Force/Airman 1st Class Christopher Quail

• The US Air Force is developing more dispersed bases to counter the threat posed by China's missiles.
• That effort includes construction at established facilities and the reclamation of disused outposts.
• Satellite photos show how far work has come on Tinian, a remote but strategically located Pacific island.

The US Air Force has been scouring the Pacific for more airfields, seeking alternatives to the handful of sprawling bases in the region that it has built up and relied on for decades.

The search is part of an effort to disperse US forces to counter the growing reach of the Chinese military, which has developed long-range missiles that could strike the US's main operating bases hard at the beginning of a war.

US troops have ventured to remote corners of the Pacific and to bases rarely used since World War II — including the island of Tinian, where they're reclaiming an airfield that last saw major use by B-29 bombers in 1944 and 1945.

Tinian International Airport in August 2021. SkyFi

Tinian "has one airfield that's the international airfield, and there's another airfield, which was the largest B-29 base during World War II. It is largely overgrown by the jungle, but the runways and the taxiways are still underneath," Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, the commander of US Pacific Air Forces, said at an Air & Space Forces Association conference in September.

The Allies captured Tinian from the Japanese in August 1944, bringing US bombers within 1,500 miles of Japan. US engineers quickly began building what became the biggest and busiest air base of the war. US planes were eventually flying from six 8,500-foot runways at West Field and North Field, the latter of which launched the B-29s that dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

West Field is now the site of Tinian International Airport and has one operating runway, while North Field is no longer in use. The island is part of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory.

Tinian International Airport in November. SkyFi

US military exercises, especially for austere and expeditionary operations, have continued on Tinian, but the airport is small and of limited use to modern aircraft — Marines set up mobile arresting gear to land F/A-18D jets there during an exercise in 2012.

In 2016, the Air Force selected the airport to host a "divert airfield" to support its training and ensure its aircraft could meet mission requirements if access to other airfields in the region was limited or denied. Officials broke ground there in February 2022.

The refurbished runway, just north of the airport's main runway, is meant to support agile combat employment, or ACE, a concept for dispersed operations that envisions aircraft and airmen deploying from main "hub" bases to less developed "spoke" bases.

ACE is part of Air Force operations around the world, but it was developed with the Pacific in mind.

The US Air Force wants a "divert airfield" on Tinian to use if access to other bases in the western Pacific is limited or denied. Google Maps

"We're going to be clearing out the jungle" on that airfield, Wilsbach said in September. "We're going to be resurfacing some of the surfaces there so that we will have a very 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."

Documents released in March as part of the Air Force's 2024 budget request outlined several projects at Tinian, asking for $78 million for them during that fiscal year.


An airfield-development project includes "demolition of World War II-era airfield pavements," clearing and leveling surfaces, and installing drainage, utilities, and secure fencing, the documents say. A fuel-pipeline project involves installing storage tanks, pipes, and safety equipment to allow ships to unload fuel for transport to the airfield by pipeline and truck.

A mobile arresting gear catches an F/A-18D at Tinian's West Field in May 2012. US Marine Corps/Lance Cpl. J. Gage Karwick

A parking-apron project involves paving aircraft parking and taxiways, the latter of which have to meet the Pentagon's "standards for ground control operations for large frame aircraft," the documents said. The apron would be big enough for 12 KC-135 and KC-46 tanker aircraft and related fueling equipment.

"The airfield, roadway, port, and pipeline improvements will provide vital strategic, operational, and exercise capabilities for the US forces," Capt. Gerald Peden, a spokesperson for Pacific Air Forces, said in response to questions about the work at Tinian. "The expanded divert airfield on Tinian will offer a valuable additional operating location for various peacetime activities, including responses to natural disasters in the region."

"Air Force engineers are scheduled to remove the vegetation that have penetrated through the cracks and joints of the old pavement surfaces. This vegetation consists mostly of grass, bushes, and small trees" that will be removed manually or with heavy equipment, Peden added. "This is the first step in preparing the airfield for the actual repair work."

 

[Albany Rifles]

More on the topic...


https://www.stripes.com/branches/ai...rfield-reclaimed-wwii-air-force-12473942.html

Air Force plans return to WWII-era Pacific airfield on Tinian

By
SETH ROBSON
STARS AND STRIPES • December 27, 2023

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U.S. forces camped on decaying tarmac on Tinian during the COPE North airpower drills Feb. 18, 2020. (Seth Robson/Stars and Stripes)



The U.S. Air Force is bringing the island airfield that launched the atomic bombings of Japan back into service as it seeks bases where its Pacific forces can disperse in wartime.

Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, commander of Pacific Air Forces, told Nikkei Asia for a Dec. 13 report that North Airfield on the island of Tinian is being reclaimed from jungle that has overgrown it since World War II.

In 1945, the airfield included four 8,500-foot runways that launched B-29 Superfortress bombers against Japan.

Visitors to Tinian, a U.S. territory 118 miles from Guam, can still see pits where the atom bombs — Fat Man and Little Boy — were loaded onto B-29s bound for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The North Airfield “has extensive pavement underneath the overgrown jungle. We’ll be clearing that jungle out between now and summertime,” Wilsbach said.

“If you pay attention in the next few months, you will see significant progress” he told Nikkei, without providing a timeline for when the airfield will be in use.

Pacific Air Forces confirmed the comments in an email Tuesday to Stars and Stripes.

The recently passed National Defense Authorization Act, which will fund the military in 2024, includes tens of millions of dollars for projects on Tinian.

Funding for the island includes $26 million for airfield development, $20 million for fuel tanks, $32 million for parking aprons, $46 million for cargo pad and taxiway extension and $4.7 million for a maintenance and support facility.

The Tinian projects are part of efforts to restore World War II-era airfields throughout the western Pacific.

Visitors to Tinian can still see pits where the atomic bombs were loaded onto the B-29 Superfortress bombers bound for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (Seth Robson/Stars and Stripes)

Agile combat employment

The old airfields provide available real estate, Brig. Gen. Michael Zuhlsdorf, the Air Force’s deputy director of resource integration for engineering, logistics and force protection, said during a webinar hosted by the Mitchell Institute, a nonpartisan aerospace research organization in Arlington, Va., in August.

“We’re going to capitalize in investing in that and bringing some of those … bases to life,” he said. “We’re going to bring to life some mothballed bases that are out there.”

The plan is to build robust infrastructure to support agile combat employment, he said. Agile combat employment refers to the Air Force’s ability to move aircraft rapidly to a network of smaller airfields to avoid being targeted by missiles in the event of war.

Chinese missile forces could reach American bases in the region, meaning the Air Force is seeking places to disperse aircraft in wartime.

Last month, the U.S. and the Philippines marked the completion of a $24-million runway upgrade at Basa Air Base on the Philippines main island of Luzon.

Basa, just south of the larger Clark Air Base, is the home of the Philippine Air Force’s 5th Fighter Wing and was built by U.S. forces at the start of World War II.

The U.S.-funded renovation is one of several projects at bases in the islands that American forces have access to under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, or EDCA. U.S. forces can operate from nine sites in the country, including four announced in February, under the 2014 security pact.

The U.S. has paid for $66 million in projects at Basa, including a warehouse and fuel storage tanks, the Philippine Inquirer reported Nov. 8. The U.S. Defense Department has earmarked $35 million in fiscal year 2024 to build a transient aircraft parking apron at the base.

Japanese airmen watch a U.S. Air Force C-130J Super Hercules aircraft on Tinian during the COPE North airpower drills in 2020. (Seth Robson/Stars and Stripes)

‘Mutually reinforcing’

Investing in Tinian complicates planning for China or any other country that considers military challenges to a free and open Indo-Pacific, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan Leaf, a former deputy commander of U.S. Pacific Command, said by email Tuesday.

“With modern aircraft and weapons, some of the preparatory work for a modern airfield is much better done in advance rather than response making it important to act now,” he said.

The restoration of the airfield means it will be available if needed for humanitarian assistance and disaster response, he said.

The airfield will be a useful part of the Air Force network, although not a game changer, Grant Newsham, a retired Marine colonel and senior researcher with the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies in Tokyo, said in an email the same day.

“The new Philippine airfields to which [the Air Force, Navy and Marines Corps] have access are also very useful and allow more effective cover of the South China Sea and even Taiwan,” he said. “Each location or facility plays a certain role — and they tend to be mutually reinforcing. You can launch and attack from many different directions — and that makes things difficult for an enemy.”

 

[S2]

Dispersion plans for Tinian and other locales throughout the Pacific will complicate the targeting process for the PLAAF/PLAN/strategic missile forces but the bigger engineering effort should be focused on hardening aircraft shelters, log and fuel hubs and ASPs throughout the region. Of course, you can't harden that which doesn't yet exist so these efforts are preliminary but critical elements to our emerging Pacific strategy. All these locations will require some level of ballistic missile defense to augment/enhance existing systems. I have to presume the Chinese have a LOT more ballistic missiles to fire than we've primary/secondary/dispersal fields. Therefore, many of these locations will be HAMMERED IMV.

Finally, the political signals these projects generate should hearten our regional allies to our commitment.

 

[Albany Rifles]

Dispersion plans for Tinian and other locales throughout the Pacific will complicate the targeting process for the PLAAF/PLAN/strategic missile forces but the bigger engineering effort should be focused on hardening aircraft shelters, log and fuel hubs and ASPs throughout the region. Of course, you can't harden that which doesn't yet exist so these efforts are preliminary but critical elements to our emerging Pacific strategy. All these locations will require some level of ballistic missile defense to augment/enhance existing systems. I have to presume the Chinese have a LOT more ballistic missiles to fire than we've primary/secondary/dispersal fields. Therefore, many of these locations will be HAMMERED IMV.

Finally, the political signals these projects generate should hearten our regional allies to our commitment.

We do have heavy ADA assets there, especially on Guam. Both Patriot & THAAD units. Also a major Naval presence. And a lot of that hardening work has happened or is ongoing.

 

[Albany Rifles]

I think this may be a great place for this.

I don't think we have seen Nationalist Chinese attendance at the kind of ceremonies previously that I can remember. Also I can not speak for the veracity of the site but I did see this happened in other US defense news platforms.


https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/news/5137785

Taiwan Navy commander attends US Navy ceremony in Hawaii


Tang Hua arrives in US for military exchanges

 Apr. 7, 2024 11:12

Kelvin Chen


Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Taiwan Navy Commander Tang Hua and President Tsai Ing-wen. (Reuters photo)
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TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan Navy Commander Tang Hua (唐華) was welcomed by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Commander John C. Aquilino as one of multiple distinguished guests at the change of command ceremony for the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Hawaii on Thursday (April 4).

Having our partners “come from all over the globe is an incredible testament to friendship, partnership and the importance of our allies and partners,” Aquilino said. “We are better together and this is proof of that,” he added.

Admiral Steve Koehler replaced Admiral Samuel J. Paparo as U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander. Other guests included navy officials from Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, South Korea, and the Philippines.

Hawaii was Tang’s first stop on his U.S. visit. He is expected to attend the Sea Air Space Conference and Exposition in Maryland on April 8 and possibly hold talks with U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti to exchange views on how to strengthen bilateral naval cooperation, per Reuters.

Military exchanges between Taiwan and the U.S. have grown increasingly close. In 2015, then-Navy Commander Li Hsi-ming (李喜明) attended the change of command ceremony for the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Hawaii. Last year, Vice Minister of National Defense Su Yen-pu (徐衍璞) traveled to Virginia to attend the U.S.-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference, according to Liberty Times.

 

[Albany Rifles]

As previously mentioned there now is solid construction budget dollars to back this project. This will greatly expand the combat and power projection capabilities of the Marianas. A LOT of options for forward basing open up with these faclities.


https://www.defensenews.com/global/...llion-award-for-long-sought-pacific-airfield/

US Air Force issues $409 million award for long-sought Pacific airfield

By Noah Robertson
Apr 10, 11:58 AM

U.S. Air Force officials on April 4, 2024, meet airmen from an engineering and repair squadron who have been working to revitalize the airfield on the island of Tinian. (Airman 1st Class Audree Campbell/U.S. Air Force)The U.S. Air Force has awarded a contract for an airfield on Tinian, a Pacific island military leaders consider crucial to their plans in the region.

Fluor, an engineering and construction company based in Irving, Texas, will receive about $409 million to finish the project within five years, the company announced April 10.

Tinian is part of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, an American territory north of Guam and about 1,500 miles east of the Philippines. The Air Force launched bomber raids against Japan from Tinian during World War II. Since then, the island’s jungle has grown over the finished runways.

For years, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command — the military organization responsible for the region — has wanted to rebuild them. Its goal is part of what the Air Force calls Agile Combat Employment — divvying U.S. forces into smaller groups around the region. More, smaller groups would make American positions harder to target, the argument goes.

The top military and civilian leaders in the Air Force visited the island earlier this month to survey work on the airfield. Since January, airmen have started to clear hundreds of acres of jungle so that construction work can begin.

Indo-Pacific Command sends lawmakers an annual wish list of projects it deems necessary to deter a conflict in the region. This year’s list included $4.8 billion for infrastructure, though about a fifth of these construction projects show up in the Pentagon’s budget request for fiscal 2025.

Pentagon and military leaders in the Pacific sometimes disagree on where to spend money in the region and what work is even possible in the short term. That’s particularly true when it comes to construction. Materials and workers are much more expensive on Pacific islands than in the continental United States, and projects require bureaucratic rigmarole to start.

The result is often a path paved by delays, a Republican congressional aide told Defense News in January.

“The money takes very long to show up,” the aide said. “Then simultaneously you’re dealing with horrific bureaucratic problems.”

As a U.S. territory with existing sites to build on and mostly flat land, Tinian should be one of the easier places for the Defense Department to work, the aide said.

“It’s not a complicated project.”

 

[Albany Rifles]

A thumb in the eye of China and a reminder we are capable of keeping our eye on more than one theater of conflict at a time.


https://www.twz.com/land/army-deploys-typhon-missile-system-to-chinas-backyard-for-the-first-time

Army Deploys Typhon Missile System To China’s Backyard For The First Time

The Army’s Typhon system, which can fire Tomahawk and SM-6 missiles, is in the Philippines for its inaugural Indo-Pacific deployment.

The U.S. Army has sent elements of its newest ground-based missile system, called Typhon, overseas for the first time to take part in an exercise in the Philippines. Typhon can fire Tomahawk cruise missiles and SM-6 multi-purpose missiles, the latter of which will, at least at first for the Army's needs, work in a quasi-ballistic missile land attack mode. Typhon's arrival sends a blaring signal at Beijing and throughout the region. It is a glimpse of what's to come as the service works through plans to permanently base these systems in China's backyard.


Earlier today, U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC) announced the arrival of at least a portion of a Typhon system, also known as the Mid-Range Capability (MRC), in the Philippines where it participated in Exercise Salaknib 24. The system, which touched down in the Western Pacific nation back on April 7, belongs to Battery C, 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, which is part of the Long Range Fires Battalion assigned to the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force (MDTF) at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State. The Army previously said it would send one of its Typhon systems abroad sometime this year, but had not disclosed where it would go or when.

US personnel unload a trailer-based launcher associated with the Typhon weapon system from a C-17A transport plane in the Philippines on April 7, 2024. US Army


It is unclear how much of Battery C will ultimately go to the Philippines to take part in Exercise Salaknib 24 or if there will be a live-fire demonstration of the unit's capabilities. Pictures the Army has released so far only appear to show a single trailer-based containerized launcher towed by a tractor variant of the Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT) being loaded on a U.S. Air Force C-17A Globemaster III transport aircraft from the 62nd Airlift Wing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord and being unloaded at its destination. The Army's release also only mentions one C-17A flight. This was the first time elements of the Typhon system have ever been airlifted and it took that aircraft more than 15 hours to make the more than 8,000-mile-long trip, according to the Army.

A Typhon launcher is loaded onto a C-17A at Joint Base Lewis-McChord for its trip to the Philippines. US Army
A complete Typhon battery consists of four launchers, a trailer-based mobile command post, and other ancillary vehicles and equipment, according to information the Army has previously released. Multiple C-17A sorites would be required to move a single Typhon battery.

A US Army briefing slide detailing elements of the complete Typhon system. US Army
Where in the Philippines the Typhon system components are now is also not clear. The Army only the elements of Battery C had arrived in Northern Luzon. The U.S. military currently has access to five different sites on the island of Luzon, the largest and most populous island in the Philippine archipelago and home to the country's capital Manila.



“This is a significant step in our partnership with the Philippines, our oldest treaty ally in the region. We’re grateful to our partners in the Armed Forces of the Philippines and we’re excited to expand our security cooperation as we bring this new capability to Luzon," Army Brig. Gen. Bernard Harrington, head of the 1st MDTF, said in a statement. "This creates several new collaboration opportunities for our bilateral training and readiness, we look forward to growing together."

"Salaknib 24 directly supports the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and U.S. Army Pacific efforts in enhancing bilateral U.S. land power capacity and capabilities for joint operations," according to USARPAC release. "By bolstering our collective readiness with the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Salaknib improves our operational capabilities and strengthens the longstanding and strong U.S.-Philippine Alliance, displaying our dedication to a free and open Indo-Pacific."

Sending even one Typhon launcher to the Philippines for this exercise is a significant demonstration of capability for the Army. As noted, the Tyhon system can be used to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles, current generation versions of which have land attack and anti-ship capabilities, as well as SM-6 missiles. As integrated on Typhon, the SM-6 is intended to be employed primarily against targets ashore and at sea essentially as a short-range ballistic missile. The Army has also described it in the past as a "strategic" weapon system that would be used against higher-value targets like air defense assets and command and control nodes.

SM-6 was originally designed as a sea-launched surface-to-air weapon and has demonstrated capabilities against various aerial threats, including ballistic missiles and novel hypersonic weapons in the terminal phases of their flights. U.S. Navy warships can also employ SM-6s against surface targets.

A full battery set of four Typhon launchers, as well as the trailer-based command post. US Army
With Tomahawk, Typhon offers the Army a way to hold targets on land and at sea at risk anywhere within a bubble stretching roughly 1,000 miles in any direction from where it is deployed. Being able to also fire SM-6s, even just as surface-to-surface weapons, would offer additional capabilities and flexibility.

From the middle of Northern Luzon, Typhon has more than enough range to reach the southeastern corner of mainland China, as well as Hainan Island with its key naval and other bases. Chinese man-made outposts across the South China Sea would also be within range. This latter point has an additional degree of immediate significance given the current tensions between Beijing and Manila over control of the Scarborough Shoal, which lies to the west of Luzon. In 2016, an international tribunal ruled in favor of the Philippines' claims to the shoal, a decision Chinese authorities have rejected. China's government says the vast majority of the South China Sea, including other areas that the Philippines also claims, is its sovereign territory, a position that the vast majority of the international community rejects.



Sending Typhon by air to the Philippines also demonstrates the Army's ability to more for more rapidly deploy these systems to forward areas in response to a crisis or contingency. In the event of a major conflict in the Pacific, such as one against China, traditional cargo aircraft, as well as large established air bases, will be prime targets. At the same time, the Air Force C-17s have significant short and rough field capabilities that would allow them to deliver Typhons (and other cargoes) to more remote and austere locations, if required. These systems could also be deployed via sealift ships, but those vessels are also expected to face heavily contested environments in any future high-end fight.

Typhon presents new challenges for Chinese forces, especially given the flexibility and responsiveness they could offer for hitting targets throughout the region in the opening phases of a conflict. At the same time, the ability of these systems to provide a persistent capability will be key, but questions about how and where they could be deployed remain. Multiple countries have said in the past that they are not interested in hosting new U.S. Army long-range missile systems like Typhon.

Sending elements of Typhon outside of the United States is also important for the Army on a broader level. This is a weapon system that the U.S. military had previously been banned from fielding under the now-defunct Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or INF, with Russia (and the Soviet Union before it).

The U.S. Navy was actually the first to bring a post-INF weapon system somewhere outside of the United States when sent a very similar trailer-based missile launch system to Europe in 2022, as you can read more about here. This same containerized launcher, known as the Mk 70 Expeditionary Launcher, has also been tested on Navy ships. The U.S. Marine Corps is also fielding a ground-based Tomahawk capability, but using a completely different launch system based around a remotely-operated derivative of the 4x4 Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV). The Marines also have a version of that launcher configured to fire Naval Strike Missile (NSM) anti-ship cruise missiles.

A US Navy Mk 70-series launch system mounted on a trailer deployed during an exercise in Denmark in September 2022. USN
In 2021, the Army did reactivate the 56th Artillery Command in Germany expressly to oversee forward-deployed units equipped with Typhon and other future conventional long-strike capabilities, such as the Dark Eagle hypersonic missile. This unit had commanded battalions equipped with Pershing and Pershing II nuclear-armed ballistic missiles during the Cold War prior to the INF coming into force.

All told, the appearance of the Army's Typhon system in Luzon sends important messages to allies like the Philippines and competitors like China. It also signals a new era for the service when it comes to long-range strike capabilities.