The Air Force wants more runways in the Pacific to disperse aircraft to in wartime.
The prospect of a war with China, which has a rapidly modernizing military that can reach farther and farther across the Pacific, has the US military looking to spread out. '''
For the US Air Force, that means scouring the region for new places to operate, but rather [than] building new bases, it's working with what's there, according to Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, commander of Pacific Air Forces.
"What we're doing is taking advantage of airfields that already exist," Wilsbach told reporters last week. "If you're going to put [in] an F-22 or an F-15 or a C-130, the airfield has to have certain criteria, and so we've actually studied every single piece of concrete in the Pacific and Indo-Pacific ... for whether they would meet our criteria."
I've long been in favor of this approach. Way back.
Because land-based air power is a powerful force that can help control the seas. And the Navy could operate planes from land bases, too, you know.
UPDATE: This will make the kill web more deadly:
Australia and the United States are partnering to develop and test an air-launched hypersonic cruise missile under the bilateral Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment program, or SCIFiRE, the two countries announced Monday.
The missile will be able to be carried on naval patrol aircraft and fighter aircraft, including the F-35.
