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The U.S. Air Force is preparing to formally reactivate a cluster of reconstituted World War II-era bases for high-tempo flight operations as the U.S. positions itself for a possible future conflict with China by dispersing assets across the Pacific.
The service is laying the groundwork for potentially thousands of annual flight operations at four historic airfields across the Northern Mariana Islands, last used in the 1940s, that are being readied for service as part of an $11 billion warfare initiative.
Fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft are expected to regularly use the four sites, expanding the number of locations from which the Air Force can sustain, deploy and maneuver troops during a potential conflict while reducing its reliance on its major western Pacific hub at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam.
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