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Prof Triggernometry
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US Air Force to reclaim Pacific airfield that launched atomic bombings as it looks to counter China
By Brad Lendon, CNN
Updated 8:08 PM EST, Thu December 21, 2023
Northern Mariana Islands, March 31, 1945, when it was the busiest airport in the world.
The US Air Force plans to bring the Pacific island airfield that launched the atomic bombings of Japan back into commission as it tries to broaden its basing options in the event of any hostilities with China, the service’s top officer in the Pacific says.
Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, commander of Pacific Air Forces, told Nikkei Asia in an interview published this week that North Airfield on the island of Tinian will become an “extensive” facility once work has been completed to reclaim it from the jungle that has grown over the base since the last US Army Air Force units abandoned it in 1946.
“If you pay attention in the next few months, you will see significant progress, especially at Tinian North,” Wilsbach said. The Air Force is also adding facilities at Tinian International Airport in the center of the island.
Pacific Air Forces confirmed Wilsbach’s comments to CNN but said there was no official release on the subject.
More here: https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/22/asia...tinian-island-airfield-intl-hnk-ml/index.html
Tinian Airfield Re-Awakens from a 70-Year Slumber in the Jungle
By John Mills Dec. 27, 2023 12:00 pmAt the height of World War II in 1945, Tinian Airfield was the busiest airfield in the world as hundreds of B-29s gathered here for the final bombing campaign of Japan. Tinian had been seized from the Japanese in a bloody campaign in late summer of 1944 and now roared with the sounds of thousands of Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclones, one of the biggest aircraft piston engines ever made. One time in Cleveland in the 1990s I stepped out of our car and immediately recognized the sound as one of the few remaining B-29s flew overhead. It was exhilarating to hear this roar of American power overhead.
Now Tinian is coming back to life as one of the new dispersal airfields to deter China. Pacific Air Forces Commander, General Ken Wilsbach is overseeing the re-birth of this giant facility. Tinian and several more airfields and bases are coming back to life in the Western Pacific. Disperse and harden is the key to building the infrastructure to deter China from moving on Taiwan and beyond. Tinian is American soil and part of the U.S. Territory of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Harden and disperse – the key tenets to building deterrence in the Western Pacific
The Tinian complex was a no brainer when reviewing the infrastructure of the Second Island Chain. The second island chain starts in Palau, then moves to Ulithi Atoll of the Federated States of Micronesia, the gathering point for the largest Naval force in history, the combined American and British fleets that gathered here in 1944 and 1945, next is Guam, a U.S. Territory and then Tinian and Saipan, the two major islands of the U.S. Territory of the Northern Mariana Islands. The Second Island Chain will be the pivotal location for assembling and projecting force to deter China from moving on Taiwan or the Philippines.Palau is already the location of major infrastructure improvement with the establishment of an “Over the Horizon” radar complex that will allow a deep look into China. Saipan is receiving improvements as well as Guam. Guam is undergoing significant improvements, but is a large aggregation of basing activities, but possibly a dangerous over-concentration. Dispersing the basing infrastructure greatly complicates the targeting problem set of the Chinese missileers, ready to rain DF-17 and DF-26 missiles onto the concentrated aircraft parking aprons of Anderson Air Force Base on Guam.
More here: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/12/tinian-airfield-re-awakens-70-year-slumber-jungle/
I suspect that Like Anderson Air Force base on Guam we will see heavy bombers stationed here as well as a few fleet air service squadrons.
