US sends B-2 stealth bombers to counter Chinese threat against Taiwan

Three American B-2 stealth bombers have arrived in the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia on the eve of Chinese live-firing naval exercises north of Taiwan.

It is the first time the nuclear-capable strategic bombers have been sent to the remote island since 2016, in an indication of the growing concern about China’s intentions towards Taiwan.

The bombers flew across the Pacific from Whiteman air force base in Missouri to land at Diego Garcia, part of the British Indian Ocean Territory. With their advanced stealth technology, the B-2s can penetrate enemy territory without alerting air-defence radars.

This week just as major Chinese live-firing naval drills were being conducted north of Taiwan, the US flew three of B-2 stealth bombers to its Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean.

China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) held a series of multi-branch drills in the Taiwan Strait and northern areas this week. According to a PLA statement it's in response to external countries sending the “wrong” signals to Taiwan’s pro-independence forces - clearly directed at Washington given the high level American delegation currently visiting Taipei - which Beijing says is a threat to peace and stability.

Washington is sending its own counter-message in its stepped up presence in the Indo-Pacific, as The Times continues: "The bombers flew across the Pacific from Whiteman air force base in Missouri to land at Diego Garcia, part of the British Indian Ocean Territory. With their advanced stealth technology, the B-2s can penetrate enemy territory without alerting air-defence radars."

This also comes days after New Zealand and Australian based defense sources accused the PLA of building up amphibious assault units along the coast just opposite Taiwan. Satellite images which circulated were presented as depicting additional marine amphibious craft activity near the self-ruled island.

You’re putting words in my mouth rather than simply listening to what I’m saying. There’s two pieces here: first, we aren’t sending in any bombers until we’ve established air dominance. Sending in B-2s without owning the skies would be suicide. Our bombers are not magical bomb carrying unicorns that teleport unscathed; they must travel through the air as any other aircraft does. And if we send B-2s into skies full of hostile fighters, we’re going to need to build some replacements. So we’ll need to establish air dominance, which with China is going to take some time. We lack the numbers of key assets in the region to do much power projection without a concerted build-up. That’s going to take some time.

Second, if China invades Taiwan, we have a choice to make as to whether we’re going to involve ourselves. Taiwan is not US property. If they bomb/invade it, we’re not in a direct armed conflict with them at that point. If we want to go down that road, there are two realities we face: 1) it’s going to take years and trillions of dollars to win. And 2) Taiwan will not have a living thing larger than bacteria left on it by the end.

It’s unsettling to see the attitude some here have that our military is somehow wielding the power of God and can simply smite all enemies with a single thought in an instant. That is not reality. Reality is that we have the best trained, best equipped military on Earth, but fighting major wars on the other side of the world against probably the second strongest military on Earth takes a massive amount of time, effort, equipment, manpower, and materials, all of which have to be moved around and deployed. And the tools we have - while great - are not perfect. We have to be smart about how those personnel and assets are deployed in combat or we will lose far more than needed to achieve victory.

This cavalier attitude toward getting into a massive armed conflict with China is ludicrous. I want to see the Chinese beaten as much as anyone, but the way you do that is economically. Move manufacturing out of China, cut trade, coordinate with all other western nations to economically isolate China, squeeze their economy until it collapses, and let their people revolt against the Communist Party. This idea that we can simply vanquish every missile and torpedo China fires, that we can fly B-2s in and bomb anywhere we want in China without establishing air dominance, that we have some kind of magical powers is foolhardy.

If you’re going to go into that fight, you don’t rush into it with a handful of assets already in the area. That’s dumb. You’ll take tons of unnecessary losses doing that. You put the assets needed (most of the US military, frankly) into position, establish air dominance, remove their naval interdiction (primarily submarine based) capabilities, then start tearing down their air defenses and establishing a FOB. That’s easily going to take 2 years right there.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.