US Air Force plans to spread its fighting wings

[WithoutYou]

US Air Force plans to spread its fighting wings

By Andrew Thompson

Updated July 31, 2013

Potent force: Aircraft rotating through the Pacific and South-East Asia could include the F-35 Lightning II, also known as the Joint Strike Fighter. (Reuters: Tom Reynolds)

An American international politics publication has reported that the US Air Force plans to dispatch fighter jets and tanker aircraft to northern Australia in the next year.

Foreign Policy magazine said it was part of a US strategy to dramatically expand its air defence presence across the Pacific and South-East Asia.

The report cited comments by the Chief of USAF Operations in the Pacific, General Herbert 'Hawk' Carlisle, in Washington this week.

In a breakfast media briefing, he is reported saying the US would send "fighters, tankers and, at some point in the future, maybe bombers on a rotational basis" to Darwin.

General Carlisle is reported to have said the aircraft would initially go to the RAAF base in Darwin before being rotated through the Tindall RAAF base near Katherine, about 300 kilometres south of the Northern Territory capital.

He said the USAF did not plan to build large amounts of infrastructure across South-East Asia to support permanent US garrisons.

Instead, it planned to use existing airfields and military resources in the region.

According to the Foreign Policy magazine report, General Carlisle said the USAF also planned to send aircraft to Singapore, Thailand and India, and possibly use existing bases in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Contingents of 250 US Marines are already rotated through the Territory on an annual basis.

The US plans to increase that number to 2,500 in the next few years.

The magazine report said General Carlisle had stated the USAF would use its "most capable platforms" for the Pacific rotation plan.

This could include large numbers of F-22 Raptors, F-35 Joint Strike Fighters and B-2 stealth bombers.

A Darwin community group, BaseWatch, said it would be disappointing to find out about any proposed escalation of the US presence in the Northern Territory through the foreign media.

A spokesman for the group, Justin Tutty, said locals had no way of knowing whether there were limits to the escalation of the US presence in Darwin.