David Axe, War Is Boring: It Wouldn’t Take Much to Wipe Out America’s Air Bases
Missiles threaten airfields the Pentagon takes for granted.
There was a time when the United States could count on safe and secure air bases from which it could leisurely deploy warplanes to deter an enemy or launch an air campaign. No longer. Potential enemies — China, in particular — possess long-range missiles that could pepper an airfield with bomblets and wipe out huge portions of America’s air power.
“Since the end of the Cold War, U.S. dominance in conventional power projection has allowed U.S. air forces to operate from sanctuary, largely free from enemy attack,” RAND analyst Alan Vick writes in a new study. “This led to a reduced emphasis on air base defense measures and the misperception that sanctuary was the normal state of affairs rather than an aberration.”
WNU Editor: If the U.S. sees missiles heading towards their air bases .... they will assume it is a nuclear attack and not a missile filled with bomblets. And if they assume that it is a nuclear attack .... they will respond in kind.