Early this month, Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, commander of U.S. Pacific Air Forces, confirmed that the airfield from which first atomic bomb drop was launched is being reclaimed.
North Field on the Island of Tinian, was the World War II airfield from which the famous B-29 Superfortress, Enola Gay, launched in its fateful mission to Hiroshima, Japan to drop Little Boy, the first operational atomic bomb.
The Air Force plans to return the defunct airfield to service to act as a dispersal and divert point for American aircraft targeted by China or other adversaries in the event of a conflict in the Pacific.
When the Enola Gay operated from the base in 1945 it had four 8,500-foot runways to allow room for loaded long-range piston-engined bombers to takeoff. Those runways and other tarmac at North Field have been overgrown by jungle vegetation in the 75 years since they were last in use. But General Wilsbach told Tokyo-based Nikkei Asia that there will be active construction efforts made toward restoring the airfield in early 2024.
“If you pay attention in the next few months, you will see significant progress, especially at Tinian North,” Wilsbach said.
Tinian Island is part of the Northern Mariana Islands, a chain of 14 islands strategically located in the in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. It lies in the Philippine Sea, 118 miles from U.S. territory of Guam and about 1,655 miles east of Manila. Its proximity to Taiwan, China, Japan and South Korea is distant but close enough to be of use to long range or aerially refueled USAF aircraft and Navy aircraft operating from U.S. carriers.
The Marianas remain an unincorporated territory and commonwealth of the United States whose inhabitants are U.S. citizens with their own congressman (Rep. Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, a former U.S. Army reservist) in the House of Representatives.
As such, there are no barriers to re-opening North Field as a reserve base or alternate operating location. Wilsbach observed that the airfield “has extensive pavement underneath the overgrown jungle. We’ll be clearing that jungle out between now and summertime.”
He added that it will be “an extensive” facility once construction is complete though he declined to tell Nikkei Asia when the Air Force expects have North Field operational.
Long runways mean Tinian could not only accommodate U.S. combat aircraft from F-35s and F-15E Strike Eagles to the B-2 and B-21 stealth bombers but as importantly, it could serve as a forward operating base for KC-46 and KC-135 refueling aircraft.
This would be a useful option for force commanders seeking to extend the range of tactical and strategic aircraft while keeping the tankers at a respectable standoff distance from China’s missiles and aircraft.
It would also complicate China’s targeting challenge by adding a meaningful yet somewhat remote operating location at which the U.S. could base tactical and strategic assets. Such complication fits with the Air Force’s Agile Combat Employment (ACE) doctrine which posits widely dispersing its forces to make them harder for China to target and to vary the attack vectors from which the Air Force can strike.
Expanding the number of U.S. operating locations in the Pacific by reviving former American installations including Tinian does exactly that. A recent article in Stars and Stripes pointed to comments made last August during a Mitchell Institute online conference by Brigadier General Michael Zuhlsdorf, the Air Force’s deputy director of resource integration for engineering, logistics and force protection.
According to Stars and Stripes, Zuhlsdorf said, “We’re going to capitalize in investing in that and bringing some of those … bases to life… We’re going to bring to life some mothballed bases that are out there.”
It appears the Pentagon is following through. In addition to revamping Tinian, the U.S. and the Philippines completed a $24 million runway upgrade at Basa Air Base on the Philippines main island of Luzon. Basa was also built by American forces during WWII and is home to Philippine Air Force units, complimenting the larger U.S./Philippine Clark Air Base to the north.
DoD has also laid out $66 million for other projects at Basa including new fuel storage and a warehouse. Another $35 million has been earmarked in fiscal year 2024 for expansion of the ramp for additional aircraft parking. Stars and Stripes pointed out that U.S. forces can operate from nine sites in the Philippines under a 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.
As for Tinian, it is only one of several islands in the Northern Marianas. That presents an opportunity for the U.S. to place other assets there including early warning radars and other systems.
While General Wilsbach said that the reconstituted North Field will be an “extensive facility”, he refrained from mentioning another obvious option. Defensive and offensive missiles could be stationed on or around Tinian.
The U.S. could expand its Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system capability by locating GMD radars there or even placing ground-based interceptor missiles (GBIs) there to get a jump on ICBMs launched from North Korea or China.
Likewise, it could locate a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery there to intercept short and medium range ballistic missiles threatening U.S. naval forces in the region. It could also prove a useful base from which to launch F-35s or F-15s to defend American and Allied naval forces against Chinese cruise missiles, a capacity the F-35 recently demonstrated over the Red Sea near Israel.
The WWII field could also be used for land-based Tomahawk cruise missiles to augment submarine and surface-ship launched Tomahawks, holding adversary naval forces in check.
Tinian might also prove a handy site for space communications and space tracking assets operated by the Air Force or the expanding Space Force. Furthermore, the investments made to add any of the potential capabilities above can have a trickle-down effect on the Marianas and other Pacific islands, bolstering their economies and reestablishing a rapport with U.S. territories and friends in the region left ignored for too long.
To deter China, the U.S. will have to use every lever at its disposal. If that means revisiting bases it hasn’t used since 1945, the effort should be made.
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