Thickening the Thin Blue Line in INDOPACOM

The Air Force is reinforcing the Navy for the job of sinking enemy ships.

The Iran War has demonstrated the ability of American air power to sink ships.

This is needed when scarce air bases close to China for tactical aircraft are well within China's aircraft and missile reach:

U.S. naval aviation equipped with long-range air-to-air missiles and a B-2 stealth bomber held an integrated maritime strike exercise off California, the Air Force announced Tuesday.

Fighters from Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 11 – the naval aviation component of the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group – trained alongside at least one Spirit strategic bomber from the 509th Bomb Wing, flying from Whiteman Air Base, Mo., at an unspecified date.

I worry about risking our carriers within China's A2/AD envelopes. But by working with appropriately equipped and trained land-based planes to create a temporary bubble of protection so carriers can dash in and strike before retiring, the carrier wartime role in the western Pacific may be feasible.

We don't have many B-2s. But we will have many B-21s able to do what we test today.

NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here. 

NOTE: You may also like to read my posts on Substack, at The Dignified Rant: Evolved. Go ahead and subscribe to it. It's the right thing to do!

NOTE: Photo from the article.