The Enola Gay took off from Tinian.
The U.S. military will make “significant progress” toward reclaiming a World War II-era airfield on the Pacific island of Tinian in the upcoming months, an air force general said, part of an initiative to disperse aircraft across the Indo-Pacific region as China’s missile threat continues to grow. The U.S. Air Force is stepping up construction at the Tinian North airfield, once used by the largest B-29 bomber fleet during World War II, and at the Tinian International airfield, Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, commander of the Pacific Air Forces, said in an interview on Wednesday…
The airfield “has extensive pavement underneath the overgrown jungle. We’ll be clearing that jungle out between now and summertime,” Wilsbach said, adding that it will be “an extensive” facility once construction is complete. Wilsbach declined to comment on when the airstrip will be operational.
Tinian lies about 200 kilometers north of Guam and is part of the Northern Mariana Islands. Revitalizing the outpost is meant to advance the air force’s operational strategy known as Agile Combat Employment. It calls for moving aircraft to as many locations as possible in the western Pacific to avoid an enemy’s missile strikes in a crisis, a major shift from post-Cold War strategy.
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