WWII bomber base enlisted for US power projection against China in the Pacific

A remote US airbase in the western Pacific – best known as the departure point for the planes that dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – has been reclaimed from the jungle to pose an asymmetrical threat to the Chinese mainland, analysts said.

The US$120 million reconstruction of North Field on Tinian Island – just 193km (120 miles) north of Guam – has included at least 1.86 million square metres (20 million sq ft) of runway and other infrastructure.

The North Field airbase on Tinian Island. Photo: Google Maps

According to the US Air Force, the restored airfield will serve as a power projection platform for its agile combat employment strategy (ACE) – a set of concepts aimed at increasing flexibility and resilience while complicating enemy targeting.

The scale of the project was revealed by a series of commercial satellite images published by military website The War Zone and dating from December 2023, a month before work began, to January this year.

The images show the airfield’s distinctive grid layout – said to have been based on the streets of Manhattan by the wartime personnel who built it – gradually emerging from the tropical jungle.

Beijing-based military analyst Fu Qianshao said North Field’s grid pattern – made up of four 2,500-metre (8,500ft) runways and associated taxiways and ramps – and the US strategy of dispersing its forces gave it a relatively strong survivability rating.

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