The island of Yap is right between Palau and Guam. Head 110T about 365 nautical miles from there, and there is the island of Woleai — where the WWII-era airstrip is being rebuilt by a 
state-owned company. About 1/3 of the way from Yap to Woleai, and slightly north, is Ulithi.
“There is no industry there. No prospects for tourism on a disaggregated atoll with only 1,000 souls that would justify that airfield.”
“There is no reason to have an airfield there besides why the Imperial Japanese built one…for military purposes. To help control/threaten the approaches to the Western Pacific from the US. Big difference now is that modern weapons give such bases much more of a reach.”
For the PRC, the primary military threat to plan for comes across the Pacific into a funnel that terminates at its most important SLOC. It’s the United States of America, and the US has a series of islands leading right into the heart of the PRC’s. It starts in Hawaii — Midway, Wake, Guam — and then to US allies: the Philippines, Japan, and Australia.
They’re planning a layered defensive fight. Their actions make that clear.
Make no mistake, we may say we are going to “defend Taiwan”, but to do that we will have to fight an aggressive war across the Pacific, into the enemy’s prepared funnel.
To build up real power, the US and her allies will need Japan, of course, but also Australia and the islands to her north. If you can blunt the Hawaii/Midway/Wake/Guam spear, and then take away any possible southern flanking movement by taking the string of islands from Singapore to Samoa — you can keep the US Navy on their side of the International Date Line.
If the PRC can prepare the battlefield in peace, then when war comes, she will be more than just a few steps ahead of your enemy and if anything else, will make any attempt to come to the Western Pacific a costly endeavor even before getting in range of Taiwan and PRC proper.
cdrsalamander.substack.com/p/do-we-know-w
state-owned company. About 1/3 of the way from Yap to Woleai, and slightly north, is Ulithi.
“There is no industry there. No prospects for tourism on a disaggregated atoll with only 1,000 souls that would justify that airfield.”
“There is no reason to have an airfield there besides why the Imperial Japanese built one…for military purposes. To help control/threaten the approaches to the Western Pacific from the US. Big difference now is that modern weapons give such bases much more of a reach.”
For the PRC, the primary military threat to plan for comes across the Pacific into a funnel that terminates at its most important SLOC. It’s the United States of America, and the US has a series of islands leading right into the heart of the PRC’s. It starts in Hawaii — Midway, Wake, Guam — and then to US allies: the Philippines, Japan, and Australia.
They’re planning a layered defensive fight. Their actions make that clear.
Make no mistake, we may say we are going to “defend Taiwan”, but to do that we will have to fight an aggressive war across the Pacific, into the enemy’s prepared funnel.
To build up real power, the US and her allies will need Japan, of course, but also Australia and the islands to her north. If you can blunt the Hawaii/Midway/Wake/Guam spear, and then take away any possible southern flanking movement by taking the string of islands from Singapore to Samoa — you can keep the US Navy on their side of the International Date Line.
If the PRC can prepare the battlefield in peace, then when war comes, she will be more than just a few steps ahead of your enemy and if anything else, will make any attempt to come to the Western Pacific a costly endeavor even before getting in range of Taiwan and PRC proper.
cdrsalamander.substack.com/p/do-we-know-w
Quote
Byron Wan
@Byron_Wan
China is methodically chipping away at America’s Pacific defense architecture, and Yap’s Woleai airfield is the latest warning sign.
Despite the Federated States of Micronesia’s Compact of Free Association with Washington, Beijing has secured a deal to refurbish the x.com/byron_wan/stat…