What is this island?
To begin with, we should remember the history of the air base on Tinian. The island is located in the southern group of the Mariana Islands archipelago, and 4.5 km northwest is the island of Saipan. (Also site of one of the US Air Force’s largest air bases during the Pacific War)100 km to the southwest is the island of Rota, and 163 km away is the island of Guam (we will return to this topic later).
In the summer of 1944, Tinian was recaptured from the Japanese army, and within a few months the United States had turned it into an important stronghold for further combat operations and operations in the Pacific theater. 15 thousand military personnel of the construction battalions built a large air base on Tinian in an extremely short time, with four 2400 m long runways, main taxiways and a large number of aircraft to accommodate Boeing B-29 Superfortress strategic bombers transferred from the continental United States He built a parking lot.
In addition, conditions were created on the island to accommodate more than 50 thousand military personnel. (flight and technical personnel and airport operations units). The scale and speed of work during the construction of the air base cannot be surprising even today.
The combat range of Tinian’s B-29 bombers made it possible to hit Japanese targets in the Philippine Islands, the Ryukyu Islands, and Japan; During the Pacific War, the 58th and 313th Bombardment Wings were deployed to the island.
On March 10, 1945, a massive bombing of Tokyo was carried out from air bases on the islands of Tinian and Saipan. (334 B-29 aircraft participated). A special unit consisting of fifteen Boeing B-29 Superfortress aircraft (393rd Atomic Group) was created at the base for the atomic bombing of Japanese cities. In August 1945, a bomber took off from this island and dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki.
General Kenneth Wilsbach, Commander of Air Forces in the Pacific, explained that the territory of Tinian Island is now covered with forest, so the first stage of restoring the airfield will be to clear the area and prepare for the construction of a runway. other airport facilities.
US bases in the Pacific
On the one hand, it is quite possible that Kenneth Wilsbach’s statement is consistent with the thesis “more airports – good and different”, but on the other hand, Andersen, one of the largest bases of the US Air Force, is located near Guam. (Andersen Air Force Base, Andersen AFB). Its two runways, each more than 3000 meters long, can accommodate aircraft of all classes.
The base has the infrastructure to support the long-term deployment of B-52 Stratofortress, B-2 Spirit and B-1B Lancer strategic bombers and tanker aircraft, which are deployed here on a rotational basis.
Additionally, Guam is home to the US Navy base Apra Harbor, one of two major US naval bases in the Pacific Ocean. (the second – Pearl Harbor – is located in Hawaii). Both objects occupy one-third of the island of Guam.
The question arises: what is the point of building another air base from scratch and only one and a half hundred kilometers from Andersen Air Base? General Kenneth Wilsbach, of course, did not answer this question.
It can only be assumed that the Mariana Islands (including Guam and Tinian) are closest to the island of Taiwan (a possible conflict zone), separated only by the Philippine Sea, in whose waters only the Daito Islands are located. (belongs to Japan) and Okinotori Island (two small Japanese stones). Even with a great desire, it is unrealistic to place large military facilities there.
Among other things, it is still advisable for the United States to distribute its forces and assets across the Pacific Ocean in every possible way. The same Guam is periodically declared by some opponents of Washington (for example, North Korea) as the number one target in a possible war.
And in any hypothetical conflict in the Pacific, if the US Navy and Air Force bases on the island of Guam are disabled, restore the combat and operational capabilities of the Indo-Pacific Command (United States Indo-Pacific Command, USPACOM) Given the distance of the United States from the continent, this will be very, very difficult. And this situation is definitely taken into account by American strategists.
Considering that Asia is one of the most dynamically developing regions of the world in the 21st century, the economic and military power of China, India, South Korea and Japan is constantly increasing and In the future, the Indo-Pacific area of operations will become the main arena of a possible armed conflict between the leading world powersthen the US construction of another large air base, even 163 km from the existing one, seems completely justified. The construction of a naval base on Tinian cannot be ruled out in the future. In general, the construction of the replacement Andersen base in the near future will most likely occur at the same pace as during World War II.
The author’s opinion may not coincide with the editors’ opinion.
Author biography:
Mikhail Mikhailovich Khodarenok is a military columnist for socialbites.ca, a retired colonel.
Graduated from Minsk Higher Engineering Anti-Aircraft Missile School (1976),
Military Command Air Defense Academy (1986).
Commander of the S-75 anti-aircraft missile division (1980–1983).
Deputy commander of the anti-aircraft missile regiment (1986–1988).
Senior officer of the Main Staff of the Air Defense Forces (1988–1992).
Officer of the General Staff Main Operations Department (1992–2000).
Graduate of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (1998).
Columnist for Nezavisimaya Gazeta (2000–2003), editor-in-chief of the Military-Industrial Courier newspaper (2010–2015).
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Source: Gazeta
Barbara Dickson is a seasoned writer for “Social Bites”. She keeps readers informed on the latest news and trends, providing in-depth coverage and analysis on a variety of topics.