In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, an abandoned U.S. airbase that was crucial in dropping the atomic bomb on Japan is being revived – and it could have been lost to history due to encroaching forests – but Japan is not on their mind. It is the increasing influence of China in the Pacific that is driving the restoration of several abandoned runways on the island that spans 40 square miles (100 square kilometers) which makes up Tinian, part of U.S. territory in the Northern Mariana Islands.
Increasing Chinese Influence
U.S. plans for what officials describe as a “broad facility” in Tinian come amid a serious military shift in the Pacific in recent years – with China building its new bases in the region, including in disputed waters.
History of Tinian Base
Perhaps not well known now, Tinian Air Base was arguably the most significant – and busiest – in the world in 1945, hosting six hastily built runways to accommodate American Boeing B-29 bombers conducting missions against Japan, about 1,500 miles (2,300 kilometers) away, including on August 6 and 9 of that year, the aircraft that dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Reviving the Airbase
In the past three years, annual funds allocated for military construction costs in the Pacific have doubled, from $1.8 billion in 2020 to nearly $3.6 billion in 2023, according to a recent report from the Congressional Research Service. This is part of the Defense Department strategy to open a range of flexible military bases capable of operating outside the larger, stable facilities in Japan and South Korea and the U.S. territory of Guam.
Other Military Projects
Tinian is not the only World War II base being refurbished: the new defense allocations also include funds for construction at Basa Air Base in the Philippines, “in addition to ongoing projects” at Royal Australian Air Force bases in Darwin and Tindal, according to a U.S. Air Force spokesperson in the Pacific.
Security Challenges
Satellite images already show how much work is underway, including establishing a new runway north of the civilian airport. Not far away, satellite images reveal other military developments – from China, which has created artificial islands among the diplomatically contested Spratly Islands, using them to host its own air bases.
The old Tinian Air Base “contains wide runways under encroaching forests. We will be clearing those forests between now and summer,” said General Kenneth Wilsbach of the Air Force to Japan’s Nikkei Asia.
At the same time, military projects for “fuel development and runway improvements” at the nearby civilian airport on the island are already underway, according to a U.S. Air Force spokesperson in the Pacific.
While there is no specific information on the total cost of the multiple projects in Tinian, “due to varying timelines and requirements, and the fact that not all work is being carried out by the U.S. Air Force,” said the spokesperson for the U.S. Air Force in the Pacific.
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