The United States Air Force is restoring the World War II (WWII) airfield from where the atomic bombings in Japan were launched.
This is in response to China’s growing influence.
Agence France-Presse Washington reported that the location will provide a “rapidly executable avenue to enhance infrastructure in the region.”
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The statement came from a spokesperson who did not mention China directly.
Nevertheless, the project coincides with China’s continuing Southeast Asian expansion into the disputed waters.
Why will the US restore the WWII airfield?
France24 says the airbase restoration is part of a Pentagon strategy called Agile Combat Employment to open flexible military bases.
The site will operate outside the larger, long-standing installations in South Korea, Japan and the US island territory of Guam.
The WWII airfield, also known as North Field, is located on Tinian Island. It is a 40-square-mile land that played a critical role in the atomic bombings of Japan.
The US Air Force used it as the take-off point for the Enola Gay and the Bockscar B-29 bombers.
These planes dropped the bombs Little Boy and Fat Man on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.
Air Force General Kenneth Wilsbach told Nikkei Asia the old military site “has extensive pavement underneath the overgrown jungle.”
The North Field Airbase had four wide runways roughly 8,500 feet long and 200 feet wide, which could accommodate large B-29 bombers.
Interesting Engineering reports that the USAF signed a $409 million contract with Fluur Corporation to restore the WWII airfield.
“Rehabilitation of World War II-era airfields has provided Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) a rapidly executable avenue to enhance infrastructure in the region,” a spokesperson told Agence France-Presse.
The AFP notes the WWII airfield restoration is a major military pivot that coincides with China’s rapid expansion.
Hence, it quoted a passage from the Department of Defense’ 2022 planning document, the National Defense Strategy:
“The most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security is the (People’s Republic of China’s) coercive and increasingly aggressive endeavor to refashion the Indo-Pacific region and the international system to suit its interests and authoritarian preferences.”
Aside from Tinian, the PACAF has other military projects like defense appropriations for the Philippines’ Basa Air Base.