China’s military capabilities, particularly its growing missile arsenal, have increased the need for the United States to reinforce its air bases across the Indo-Pacific, as a lack of hardened aircraft shelters could leave U.S. air power vulnerable to attack, a new study by the Hudson Institute think tank has warned.
“Airfields at home and abroad where U.S. forces operate are generally unhardened and highly vulnerable to small strikes,” Hudson’s Timothy Walton and Thomas Shugart from the Center for a New American Security wrote in their report released earlier this month.
For instance, China could “neutralize” U.S. military aircraft and fuel stores at U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture — arguably the most important Marine Corps aviation facility in Japan — with “as few as 10 submunition-armed missiles,” they said.
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