
Report: US military airfields in Indo-Pacific too easily taken out of action
Chinese strikes on airfields will stymie US military aircraft in the Indo-Pacific region if there is a conflict, a new study says, recommending that the US invest in cheap, uncrewed aircraft and runway repair capabilities. The central problem, the researchers say, is that bases inside the first island chain – a collection of archipelagos running roughly from Indonesia in an arc northeast to Japan, encompassing the South China Sea and East China Sea – are in range of thousands of Chinese missiles. If those weapons are dedicated to destroying or disabling runways, they could close airfields in Japan for a minimum of 11.7 days. Those farther away, in Guam and the Pacific Islands, could be closed for a minimum of 1.7 days. “In practice, however, China could disrupt US combat operations for much longer by denying the US the use of runways to conduct aerial refuelling operations,” the report states…....