US Air Force sends B-1 bombers back to Guam on temporary deployment after ending its 16-year continuous presence on the Pacific Island just weeks ago
- The United States Air Force has dispatched a fleet of B-1 bombers to Guam just weeks after ending its 16-year continuous bomber presence in the region
- Four bombers and approximately 200 Airman arrived at Anderson Air Force Base in Guam on May 1 to conduct training and ‘strategic deterrence missions’
- The B-1s, from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas, have been deployed as part of the USPAF’ bomber task force, which seeks to show ‘operational unpredictability’
- Analysts say that tactic makes the US forces harder to target than had been previously in the service’s now ended Continuous Bomber Presence in Guam
The United States Air Force has dispatched a fleet of B-1 bombers to Guam just weeks after ending its 16-year continuous bomber presence in the Indo-Pacific region.
Four bombers and approximately 200 Airman arrived at Anderson Air Force Base in Guam on May 1 to conduct training and ‘strategic deterrence missions’.
The B-1s, from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas, have been deployed as part of the US Pacific Air Forces’ bomber task force, a procedure designed to demonstrate ‘operational unpredictability’ and keep Washington’s adversaries guessing about where US firepower will be and when.
Analysts say the tactic makes US forces harder to target, rather than keeping fleets stationed on specific bases as had been the case in the now-ended Continuous Bomber Presence in Guam.
Four bombers and approximately 200 Airman arrived at Anderson Air Force Base in Guam on May 1 to conduct training and ‘strategic deterrence missions’
‘The consistency and predictability of the [Guam] deployment raised serious operational vulnerabilities. A planner in China’s military could have easily plotted ways of destroying the bombers due to their well-known presence,’ Timothy Heath, senior international defense researcher with the RAND Corp. think tank, told CNN.
The USAF pulled a fleet of B-52 bombers from Guam on April 17, just days after the aircrafts participated in a military might ‘elephant walk’ exercise aimed at China.
Ever since, the service has been increasing the presence of its B-1s in the Pacific, with several missions being flown over from bases in the US.
Last Thursday, a 32-hour flight was conducted by two B-1s from Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota to the South China Sea.
That mission followed an operation earlier in April where two Ellsworth B-1s conducted 30-hour round trip to Japan, where they carried out training exercises alongside Japanese F-15 and F-2 fighters, as well as US F-16 jets.
In announcing the B-1 deployment in Guam, Lt. Col. Frank Welton, PACAF’s chief of operations force management, spoke of the US’ ability to be able to carry more powerful weapons with the B-1s than the B-52s that left Guam a few weeks ago.
The USAF pulled a fleet of B-52 bombers from Guam (above) on April 17, just days after the aircrafts participated in a military might ‘elephant walk’ exercise aimed at China
The flight path shoing the B-52Hs elephant walk over China
‘The B-1 is able to carry a larger payload of Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles and a larger payload of 2,000-pound class Joint Direct Attack Munitions,’ Lt. Col. Frank Welton, Pacific Air Forces’ chief of operations force management, said in a statement.
‘Additionally, the B-1 is able to carry the [anti-ship cruise missile], giving it an advanced stand-off, counter-ship capability. It also has an advanced self-protection suite and is able to transit at supersonic speeds to enhance offensive and defensive capabilities.”
The bomber’s precision guided missile is designed to strike enemy warships with a fragmentation and penetrating warhead, while keeping bombers at a low risk of a counterattack.
B-1s were last deployed to the Indo-Pacific region in 2017. The Air Force had used those Guam-based bomber missions to patrol over the East and South China Seas as a means of projecting U.S. airpower and resolve to North Korea, China and Russia.
The Air Force declined to specify how long the temporary deployment will last. Analysts say deployments of this kind can now be considered the new normal in the region.
‘We will stage bombers through Guam periodically,’ said Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center told CNN. ‘Sometimes they will participate in exercises with our allies and partners, sometimes they will continue on to the Indian Ocean by way of the South China Sea.’