Two U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress bombers fly over the Pacific Ocean during training in August 2018. The mission was flown in support of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s Continuous Bomber Presence operations. (Airman 1st Class Gerald R. Willis/U.S. Air Force)
Defense News: The US Air Force has unconventional plans to win a war in the Asia-Pacific
WASHINGTON — As the U.S. Air Force prepares for the possibility of a future conflict with a near-peer adversary, it has run into a massive logistical problem: In a time where Russia and China are investing in layers of air- and ground-launched missiles that threaten American air bases, how can the Air Force ensure it will be able to get its planes off the ground?
The answer — which the Air Force calls Agile Combat Employment — calls for the service to be able to launch, recover and maintain planes away from its main air bases and instead at unorthodox locations like partner nations’ military airfields or civilian airports.
Specifically, the large, geographically dispersed terrain of the Asia-Pacific region generates unique challenges, said Maj. Gen. Brian Killough, deputy commander of Pacific Air Forces. “We’ve got to respond to that requirement to move everything by either air or ship across the theater” he said in a Jan. 29 interview. “We don’t have the very efficient rail lines and highway systems that Europe does to move those things around, so we’ve got to get lighter and leaner.”
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WNU Editor: Big bases means big targets. It makes sense to look at alternatives, as well as having supplies and equipment already deployed in the field.
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