The United States Air Force is rebuilding the airfield used to launch the nuclear attacks on Japan during World War II, reclaiming Tinian Island’s north field from the jungle — just in case it’s needed in a war with China. Diplomatic efforts to prevent a conflict notwithstanding, the U.S. and China are on a path to potential military conflict, either because of China’s stance on reunification with Taiwan or because it has a habit of claiming international waters as its own.
If, or when, a conflict happens, the U.S. wants as many places to launch and land planes in the Pacific as possible. The effort is known as Agile Combat Employment (ACE). Under ACE, the U.S. strengthened alliances, forged new ones and is revitalizing infrastructure that hadn’t seen heavy use since 1947.
The commander of the U.S. Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) said there will be significant progress in the coming months to restore Tinian’s north field. The general says there is extensive pavement underneath the overgrown jungle and work to clear it will likely take most of the summer.
Once the runways and surrounding areas are clear, crews will get the grounds ready for modern aircraft to land. Portions of the airfield were cleared before, but that was usually for training purposes and to demonstrate operations from remote locations.
When the new upgrades are done, the north airfield on Tinian will be home to an “extensive” facility, though there’s no timeline on when those upgrades will be done.
The airfield will be part of the distributed force posture the U.S. military is adopting in the Pacific, and it’s a departure from Cold War strategies.
China’s missiles present enough of a threat that the U.S. wants to be sure it doesn’t have too many eggs in any one basket and U.S. allies in the region are more than happy to help.
Instead of putting all of its weapons and warfighters in a small number of locations, the U.S. is spreading things out. In addition to rebuilding the Tinian airfields, the U.S. military gained access to new locations in 2023 thanks to defensive agreements with the Philippines and Papua New Guinea. The U.S. also built on existing ties with Australia, Japan and South Korea.
