Andersen Air Force Base, GUAM — If warfare with China breaks out over Taiwan, this distant Pacific island outpost — American territory since 1899 — shall be a serious goal of Chinese language missile strikes, in keeping with the Pentagon.
Protection officers say Guam’s airfields and ports that host bombers, fighters, spy drones and warships could be misplaced within the early phases of the battle, primarily based on intelligence assessments of Chinese language warfare plans.
The island of virtually 170,000 People is a serious navy hub situated 4,000 miles west of Hawaii and about 1,500 miles from the Philippines on the fringe of the Philippine Sea. It’s at present host to giant missile and bomb storage amenities, Navy warships and submarines, Air Force bombers on non permanent rotation and Military missile defenses.
4 B-1 bombers had been deployed to Guam in January briefly for workout routines. The bombers carried out flights along with Japanese and South Korean fighters in the course of the deployment.
However the Air Force not retains a steady presence of strategic B-1, B-2 or B-52 bombers on Guam, officers mentioned.
5 nuclear-powered assault submarines are also primarily based on the island and are considered essential to the U.S. the navy’s uneven warfare functionality in opposition to China or different adversaries within the area.
A protection official mentioned briefings this week revealed Guam shall be focused by Folks’s Liberation Military missiles within the early phases of a Taiwan warfare.
China’s purpose within the warfare is to quickly annex Taiwan, the democratic-ruled island situated about 100 miles off China’s southeast coast, inside 14 days.
Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth stopped right here on Thursday and mentioned the key missile protection buildup on Guam is “a mannequin” for President Trump’s plan for a nationwide missile protection system known as Golden Dome.
“We’re going to be taught lots [from the Guam defense system] and apply them to defenses on the continental United States, he mentioned following a gathering with native Guam officers.
Guam is the westernmost U.S. territory within the Indo-Pacific and residential to about 6,400 navy service members.
The Pentagon is investing $7.3 billion right here for navy development by way of 2028.
To counter Chinese language missile assaults, the Air Force adopted a technique known as agile fight employment that’s centered on transferring warplanes all through the realm to a community of smaller airfields to keep away from Chinese language missile strikes.
The bottom’s thirty sixth Wing has no everlasting Air Force plane and as a substitute rotates bombers, tankers and drones by way of the bottom.
Mr. Hegseth warned that regional Pacific island states close to Guam are seeing rising encroachment from communist China. America is standing with allied states to defend in opposition to Chinese language encroachment, he mentioned.
“Any assault in opposition to these islands is an assault in opposition to the U.S.,” Mr. Hegseth mentioned, noting the navy must be ready for a struggle whereas looking for to discourage a battle with China.
“We aren’t looking for a warfare with communist China. However it’s our job to make sure that we’re prepared,” Mr. Hegseth mentioned.
Earlier, Mr. Hegseth advised a gaggle of a number of hundred U.S. troops that they’re “the tip of the spear” for American energy projection within the Asia Pacific area.
“You might be residing in a harmful neighborhood,” he mentioned. “You might be America’s energy projection platform. The American individuals depend on you.”
Mr. Hegseth advised the assembled airmen the navy is being reformed by going again to fundamentals — making ready for warfighting and deterring battle by way of elevated energy.
“We’re going to untie the palms of warfighters,” he mentioned. “We’re going to shut with and destroy the enemy. We’re going to coach as we struggle. We’re going to do what warriors do.”
Along with warplanes and warships, the Pentagon can be relocating hundreds of Marines to Guam from Okinawa.
The Pentagon’s most up-to-date report on the Chinese language navy acknowledged the PLA can attain U.S. bases in Guam with each ballistic and cruise missiles.
“Sooner or later, PLA [land attack cruise missiles] will possible be deployable on floor platforms just like the Renhai class guided-missile cruisers,” the report mentioned.
“H-6K bomber flights into the Philippine Sea show the PRC’s skill to vary Guam with air-launched LACMs.”
Additionally, the report mentioned the DF-26 “is able to ranging Guam and may conduct nuclear, precision standard, and maritime assaults.”
A number of activity teams of PLA navy warships, together with plane carriers, have carried out deployments close to Guam, the report mentioned.
Chinese language state media mentioned in November that an assault submarine deployment to Guam was a part of Pentagon plans to show the island right into a weapon in opposition to China.
“China harbors no strategic hostility towards the US and hopes that it’s going to meet China midway, refraining from unconstructive actions resembling deploying weapons right here and establishing bases there,” the Chinese language Communist Get together-affiliated International Occasions acknowledged.
China additionally was angered by the go to to Guam in December by Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te. Some residents right here feared the go to would make the U.S. territory a goal of escalating U.S.-China tensions.
Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Palenske, commander of the thirty sixth Wing right here, just lately acknowledged on social media that Chinese language brokers had tried to infiltrate Andersen Air Force Base.
“We’ve had some vital upticks within the variety of tried incursions on to our Air Base by residents from non-allied Nations … particularly after we are internet hosting main workout routines,” Gen. Palenske acknowledged on Fb.
These looking for unauthorized entry relied on weak excuses. In a single case, a safety guard requested a suspected intruder why they had been looking for entry and was advised he needed to make use of the canine park.
“You don’t have a canine, bro!” the guard replied.
Gen. Palenske then acknowledged: “All proper China … Convey it! ‘Murica!’ ”
Guam already was a pre-attack goal of China throughout a Chinese language cyberattack by the group labeled Volt Storm.
The Pentagon’s most up-to-date annual report on the Chinese language navy mentioned Volt Storm’s targets included a number of essential infrastructure sectors, together with communications, vitality, transportation methods and water in each the continental U.S. and Guam.
“[People’s Republic of China] cyber actors might goal Guam to counter U.S. energy projection, given the PRC’s perceptions of the island’s significance for U.S. navy operations within the Indo-Pacific,” the report mentioned.
PLA penetration of networks used to manage essential infrastructure can be utilized “to launch cyberattacks that, at a minimal, may cause localized, non permanent disruptions.”
A simulated warfare sport just lately carried out by a Washington suppose tank revealed that U.S. forces would win a battle with China over Taiwan however at nice value, together with damaging assaults on U.S. air-power property stationed on Guam.
In the course of the simulation, scores of U.S. plane, together with Air Force bombers and fighters, together with International Hawk long-range drones had been destroyed by Chinese language precision assaults whereas airfields had been broken, the report by the Middle for Strategic and Worldwide Research mentioned.
China can also strike Guam with a brand new ultra-high pace hypersonic missile known as the DF-27. The hypersonic weapon is claimed to be impervious to missile defenses.
Nevertheless, the principle menace to the island is probably going China’s nuclear-conventional armed DF-26 intermediate vary ballistic missile.
In October, the Protection Intelligence Company printed a report that mentioned China is growing the variety of DF-26 missiles that Beijing has dubbed “Guam killers” due to their vary for future strikes on the island.
The road-mobile, precision-guided missiles shall be outfitted with both nuclear or standard warheads, the report mentioned. “The commingling of nuclear and standard capabilities raises the potential for inadvertent escalation throughout a battle,” the report mentioned.
The road-mobile missile system “can conduct each standard and nuclear precision strikes in opposition to floor targets in addition to standard strikes in opposition to naval targets,” the report mentioned.
China has mentioned the U.S. withdrawal from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty between the USA and Russia in 2019 weakened strategic stability between the world’s prime nuclear powers.
In response, China has “fielded hundreds of weapon methods, together with the DF-26, that might be coated by the treaty if China had been to take part,” the report mentioned.
China’s pressure of DF-26s elevated from 200 launchers in 2019 to 350 launchers in lower than seven months.
With a spread of two,485 miles, the missile can attain Guam from cell launchers in southern China.
Admiral Sam Paparo, commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific command, has mentioned defending Guam with a multi-layered air and missile protection was “my No. 1 precedence.”
To higher defend in opposition to assault, the Pentagon is conducting a crash program to construct up missile and air defenses on Guam. A complete of $1.5 billion was licensed for the defenses in 2024.
The upgraded defenses will embrace including further models of the at present deployed battery of the Terminal Excessive Altitude Space Protection, an Military missile protection.
Different defenses will search to supply what the navy described as a “360-degree” safety system in opposition to missile and air strikes.
Added methods will embrace further THAAD, and Navy SM-6 and SM-3 Block IIA missile interceptors, the Aegis Ashore system, together with high-technology radar and sensors.
Mr. Hegseth mentioned the Guam protection system shall be a mannequin for President Trump’s Golden Dome nationwide missile protection system.
Regardless of the missile protection plans, the Pentagon introduced in October it’s scaling again the variety of websites on the island for defenses from 35 places to 16 websites.
The adjustments had been outlined in a draft environmental influence assertion.
The defenses is not going to be absolutely accomplished till 2035 and the primary parts shall be deployed in early 2025.
“Guam is a key strategic location for sustaining and sustaining U.S. affect, deterring adversaries, responding to crises, and sustaining a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the influence assertion mentioned. “An assault on Guam could be thought of a direct assault on the U.S. and could be met with an acceptable response.”
Mr. Hegseth arrived in Manila Thursday evening aboard an Air Force E-4 nuclear command put up plane. He’s scheduled to fulfill Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday.
