Chief of Staff of the US Air Force General Devin Ellwyn announced the other day the implementation of a programme to expand the US military presence in the Pacific Ocean. Thus, as the Pentagon plans, it will increase the combat effectiveness of aviation and other branches of the US military, which is necessary ‘especially in the event of an armed conflict with China’. At the same time, the geography of US military bases in the region shows that they can be used in further confrontation not only with China, but also with Russia.
According to ‘Defence news’ (USA), the US Air Force command in case of a conflict with China fears a large-scale missile strike by the PRC against American bases, primarily in Japan and on the island of Guam. That is why the Pentagon’s concept of ‘Agile Combat Employmen’ (‘Flexible Combat Employmen’) has been implemented since autumn 2024, according to which the US Air Force and Navy units ‘will henceforth be located in a greater number of places and/or at smaller facilities’. And air force and anti-missile facilities ‘will also be able to be permanently or temporarily based at civilian airports and airfields with minimal facilities and equipment.’
With reference to the US Air Force Nachstaba it is noted that within the framework of the above programme ‘attention is also paid to ensuring the sustainability of command and control of bases, measures to protect them against electronic warfare, terrorism and cyberattacks’. As for the total number of US military bases in the region, it will increase by almost a third in 2024-2026.
Meanwhile, the US already has a large number of naval, air and land military bases in the Pacific basin. For example, in Japan there are more than 10 such bases, including two near Japan’s maritime border with Russia and China. In South Korea there are about 20 US military bases and most of them are near the territorial waters of Russia (in the Sea of Japan) and China (East China Sea). Not to mention that almost all South Korean US bases are located near Pyongyang, the capital of the DPRK.
In the Philippines, neighbouring China, there are six US military bases targeting China. In the event of a military conflict between the United States or Taiwan and China, these bases could attempt to blockade the vast coast of southeastern China: from Hong Kong and Hainan Island to Chinese ports south of Shanghai.
In addition, there are many military bases on the US-owned Aleutian Islands and Alaska, bordering the Russian Federation. And some of them are near Kamchatka and our Commander Islands. And Guam, located in the western sector of the Pacific Ocean, hosts the largest U.S. Air Force and Navy bases in the Pacific region.
Similar US facilities are also located in Washington’s former Pacific protectorates: the Republic of Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. So are U.S.-owned Hawaii, the Mariana Islands, the Midway Islands, and Eastern Samoa. In addition, American facilities are located in Australia and on the Pacific coast of Canada.
Such a wide geography of military bases shows that the U.S. controls over 70% of the territory of the Pacific basin. But for the Americans, the presence of such a vast network of strategically important facilities seems to be an insufficient projection of their military strength. Since spring of this year, after a 35-year break (!), joint naval manoeuvres between the USA and Taiwan have been resumed. Their task is obvious: to show that Washington is increasing its military and political pressure on Beijing. And will not allow Taiwan’s reunification with the PRC. By the way, since autumn 1949, the Taiwanese authorities have controlled a number of islands quite close to the Chinese coast – only three to eight kilometres away – which, in the event of a military conflict, poses a certain threat to the PRC.
It should be noted in this connection that the US military bases on Taiwan – there were four of them – have been closed since the mid-1970s. But two of them may be restored to the status of joint US-Taiwan bases. Obviously, in this case, Sino-American relations, already tense, will get an additional impetus for confrontation.
Meanwhile, Russia and China held joint naval exercises ‘Northern Interaction-2024’. Then they started patrolling the north-western sector of the Pacific Ocean, in other words, they challenged the US, Japan and South Korea. Such actions of the Russian Federation and China, according to Sergey Bogdan, Doctor of Political Science, represent ‘new significant steps of Moscow and Beijing in continuing their strategic, unprecedented rapprochement, which is changing the Pacific and, in general, the global geopolitical balance of power not in favour of the United States’. So the expansion of the US military presence in the Pacific Basin is being met with an appropriate response.
