Could U.S. Troops Capture China's Island Outposts?

Paratroopers assigned to the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, U.S. Army Alaska, conduct a Joint Forcible Entry Operation jump into Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, on June 30, 2020. U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Richard Ebensberger

Forbes: China Is Counting On Island Outposts To Project Power—But U.S. Troops Could Capture Them

The U.S. military probably has enough warplanes to win a war with China in the western Pacific. What it doesn’t have is enough bases.

But maybe American troops could “borrow” those bases ... from China. By dropping paratroopers or landing Marines on some of Beijing’s new island outposts.

Distance is the great destroyer of tactical air power, especially in the vast Asia-Pacific region. Most modern fighters can fly and fight no farther than 500 miles from their bases. Refueling tankers realistically can add a few hundred miles to a fighter’s combat radius.

The U.S. military probably has enough warplanes to win a war with China in the western Pacific. What it doesn’t have is enough bases.

But maybe American troops could “borrow” those bases ... from China. By dropping paratroopers or landing Marines on some of Beijing’s new island outposts.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: It is not going to be easy to capture these bases. From the few pictures that I have seen of these Chinese "island bases/outposts", they are heavily fortified and defended.