Posted on 09/05/2020 8:38:52 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
On July 21, two U.S Air Force B-1B bombers took off from Guam and headed west over the Pacific Ocean to the hotly contested South China Sea. The sleek jets made a low-level pass over the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its escorting fleet, which was exercising nearby in the Philippines Sea, according to images released by the U.S. military.
The operation was part of the Trump administration’s intensifying challenge to China’s ruling Communist Party and its sweeping territorial claims over one of the world’s most important strategic waterways. While senior Trump officials launch diplomatic and rhetorical broadsides at Beijing, the U.S. Defense Department is turning to the firepower of its heavily armed, long-range bombers as it seeks to counter Beijing’s bid to control the seas off the Chinese coast.
Since late January, American B-1B and B-52 bombers, usually operating in pairs, have flown about 20 missions over key waterways, including the South China Sea, the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan, according to accounts of these flights from U.S. Air Force statements and official social media posts.
These missions, military analysts say, are designed to send a crystal-clear signal: The United States can threaten China’s fleet and Chinese land targets at any time, from distant bases, without having to move America’s aircraft carriers and other expensive surface warships within range of Beijing’s massive arsenal of missiles.
In this response to the growing power of China’s military, the Pentagon has combined some of its oldest weapons with some of its newest: Cold War-era bombers and cutting-edge, stealthy missiles. The supersonic B1-B first entered service in 1986; the newest plane in the B-52 fleet was built during the Kennedy administration. But these workhorses can carry a huge payload of precision weapons.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
In a clear acknowledgement that Guam is now at risk, the U.S. Air Force announced on April 17 it would end its continuous rotation of bombers to the island base and withdraw them to the U.S. mainland.
The absence of a permanent bomber presence at Guam is a blow to Washington’s ability to deter China and North Korea, airpower experts say. The island in the Western Pacific is less than a five-hour flight from the South China Sea.
“It makes it look like the Chinese military build-up has worked,” said Peter Layton, a visiting fellow at Griffith University in Australia and a retired Australian air force Group Captain who has worked at the Pentagon. “They are now taken out of range.”
Since then, the United States has sent bombers to Guam for short-term deployments from their continental bases. U.S. airpower researchers suggest that the availability of better training facilities at mainland U.S. bases was also a factor in the decision to withdraw the bombers. But in further evidence of Guam’s vulnerability, the head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral Philip Davidson, has asked Congress to fund a powerful missile defense system for the island by 2026.
Another hurdle for the Pentagon: America’s bomber force is shrinking just as the PLA challenge grows. From a force of more than 400 at the end of the Cold War, the U.S. bomber fleet has shrunk to 158 aircraft. Of those planes, 62 are B-1Bs and 76 are B-52S. The United States also has a smaller force of 20 newer B-2 stealth bombers.
The air force plans to retire 17 B-1Bs next year to concentrate resources on the remaining bombers until the planned introduction of a new generation of stealthy bomber, the B-21, toward the end of this decade. This bomber is expected to sharply improve the U.S. Air Force’s ability to penetrate Chinese airspace.
I believe in Trump’s second term that he will forge a real military alliance in Asia that may change the course of history and contain China’s military aspirations.
Trump thinks big. Abe of Japan thinks big even as he is stepping down. This process has already begun.
It is interesting how the B-52 keeps being reinvented for new roles. There is speculation that they might not be fully retired until they are about 100 years old. Really amazing.
These missions, military analysts say, are designed to send a crystal-clear signal: The United States can threaten China’s fleet and Chinese land targets at any time, from distant bases, without having to move America’s aircraft carriers and other expensive surface warships within range of Beijing’s massive arsenal of missiles.
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The other signal is that our expensive Navy surface ships are only effective against poorly armed countries, and for cleanup operations after the war is over.
It’s not 1950 anymore. Another Doom article about how China would annihilate us. They get boring to read they must be really boring to write
Run silent.
Run deep, baby...
The question is: Have Carriers become the Battleships of 1938?
Battleships in 1938 had very limited utility in WWII, instead of being the center of an effective force.
Carriers have been the battleships of 1938 for a couple of decades now. They are invaluable for force projection when bombing the likes of Vietnam, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan; but they wouldn’t survive a hot conflict with a near-peer adversary.
Do they have the original airframes? Amazing if they do.
The first time I saw a B-52, I was a teenager walking in the street of a European capital during the Berlin Air Bridge.
RE: Another Doom article about how China would annihilate us. They get boring to read they must be really boring to write.
The more important question is this, regardless of whether the topic is repetitive and boring-— IS THE PREMISE TRUE?
what near peer enemy?
Nothing China or Russia has can compete against our air defenses without a nuclear strike leading their charge, or being boxed in against shore launched hypersonic cruise missiles
Nothing China or Russia has can compete against our air defenses without a nuclear strike leading their charge, or being boxed in against shore launched hypersonic cruise missiles"
Correct...
IAC, the closest to a "peer enemy" the U.S. has are the rolling waves of communists now on an unchallenged march inside our country...
We need to do a lot more about China than we’re doing.
Brought to mind something I remember from the old TV series "Battlestar Galactica"
A line of dialog explained that the Galactica was over 300 years old.
A good military platform can last at least 100 years and will be replaced only when constructing a new replacement becomes cheaper than maintenance on the old equipment.
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