In response to Chinese missile threats, the U.S. Air Force plans to resume and expand military exercises at World War II airports in the Northern Mariana Islands

The latest announcement from the U.S. Air Force shows that the U.S. military plans to conduct more than 6,000 aircraft takeoffs and landings every year at four airports on three U.S. islands in the northwest Pacific, including an important World War II-era airport that is under renovation to cope with China's expanding strike range and missile range.

Defense News reported that the U.S. Air Force has issued a letter of intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIS) to assess the "potential social, economic and environmental impacts" of training and operations at Saipan International Airport, Tinian International Airport, Tinian North Field and Rota International Airport. These islands belong to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, an unincorporated territory of the United States.

The core of this exercise program is to support the U.S. Air Force's "Agile Combat Employment" (ACE) concept. This strategy emphasizes dispersing troops to multiple airports to ensure that troops can maneuver between bases and maintain operations to prevent the enemy from paralyzing U.S. military operations through precision strikes on a single base. The military has made it clear that the development of the ACE concept is mainly to cope with China's military expansion.

The announcement pointed out that the three islands are only dozens of nautical miles apart from each other, which greatly shortens the transfer time of troops and is very suitable for complex "distributed operations" exercises. They are also less than 100 nautical miles away from the US military's hub base in Guam, which can effectively support the concentration and deployment of troops.

The proposed training plan is expected to conduct multiple military exercises lasting several weeks at each airport each year. Each airport will handle up to 1,200 fixed-wing aircraft and 320 rotary-wing aircraft movements per year. The operation will include the temporary installation of expeditionary infrastructure, the replenishment of up to 550,000 gallons of fuel, and the processing of munitions such as interference filaments and thermal flares.

In recent years, the US military has invested a lot of money in upgrading these airports established during World War II, especially the Tianning Island North Airport, which was covered by vegetation and idle after World War II. Repairs will begin at the end of 2023.

However, there are doubts within Air Force leadership about the allocation of resources and funding for this expansion plan, especially as the war with Iran has placed heavy new demands on US military forces. In addition, local residents also have divided positions. Some welcome the economic benefits brought by military investment, but others question whether frequent military exercises can truly benefit islanders and worry about the Pentagon's lack of transparency in listening to local public opinion.

The Air Force Ministry will hold public hearings on Saipan, Tinian and Rota this month. It is expected to submit a draft environmental impact assessment in the fall of 2027 and release the final version in mid-2028.