Just a few days ago, US Defense Secretary Austin speculated that plausible PLA fighters, bombers and other fighters have made many recent dispatches near Taiwan, which seems to be a "dress rehearsal" for Taiwan's military operations. A few days after the conversation stopped, the US military sent its own strategic bomber B-52H to "fly directly" from the military base on the mainland to the Western Pacific.
Lao Liu wanted to ask rhetorically, what is the US bomber doing? Isn't this kind of action attacking China in a "dress rehearsal"? At the same time, it should also be noted that the three major strategic bombers of the US Air Force all have the ability to carry out aerial refueling and raid the strategic targets of the opponents in the West Pacific, and combined with the Russian Defense Minister's reminder that the US bombers are practicing nuclear weapons around Russia, we need to be extra vigilant about the movement of US bombers.
Screenshot of the Financial Times report.
The official Weibo account of the South China Sea Strategic Situational Awareness Platform released a message on the 9th that on December 9, a B-52H bomber of the US Air Force took off from The Us mainland Bacchusdale Air Force Base in Louisiana and went to the West Pacific region to carry out "Bomber Task Force Mission", which entered the Japanese sea at about 12 noon.
In 2021, according to incomplete statistics, the US Air Force has accumulated 36 B-52H, B-1B and B-2A strategic bombers to the West Pacific 23 times to conduct "bomber task force operations", and frequently practice the operational concept of "dynamic force deployment". This mode of operations is from 2020, when the U.S. military eliminated "bomber persistent presence operations" and replaced them with "bomber task force operations" to enhance the unpredictability of operations. The activity area mainly includes the Western Pacific region including the Sea of Japan, the East China Sea and the South China Sea.
Since the US bombers were in "rehearsal" a surprise attack on the opponents of the Western Powers. So how many modes of maneuver deployment are possible? Lao Liu briefly sorted out the following according to the content of the public report:
One is to take off from the US mainland base on the 9th, and fly through the air refueling to the relevant sea and airspace in the West Pacific, such as the Sea of Japan, the South China Sea, and the East China Sea.
The South China Sea Strategic Situational Awareness Platform released a partial flight roadmap for the U.S. B-52 bomber on the 9th.
From the currently open flight route, it cannot be seen what kind of offensive maneuvers this B-52 carried out when it flew over the West Pacific Sea, although the B-52 does not have a strong penetration capability, but as an air strike platform outside the defense area, it still has combat strength that cannot be underestimated.
Second, in the process of returning to the Us mainland, bombers deployed in other theaters killed a rifle and sneaked to the Western Pacific to conduct a "flash mob" exercise. In June, for example, the Air Force said the B-52H bomber returned to the United States after deploying in Europe, completing a 27-hour mission across the Arctic and Pacific Oceans for a distance of 12,000 miles (about 19,300 kilometers). According to the U.S. Air Force, the mission was a good deterrent to the Arctic and Western Pacific.
This long-distance flight distance and duration is not too long in the long-range long-term flight training of US Air Force bombers, and can only be regarded as moderate-to-high intensity training. According to the analysis of the pattern that every training of the US Air Force has a certain exercise, this action can be completely transformed into a real combat simulation of strategic bombers in other theaters rushing to attack the airspace of the West Pacific Sea in wartime.
Third, when the US bombers stationed in the West Pacific for training returned to their us base on the mainland, they intentionally or unintentionally flew into our Air Defense Identification Zone in the East China Sea and even practiced some flight routes with great practical significance. In May 2020, according to the news released by the South China Sea Strategic Situational Awareness Platform, THE US bombers were "playing tricks" in the South China Sea in the form of separate attacks. On May 8, 2020, two U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers took off from Anderson, Guam, and traveled to the South China Sea in two separate routes to conduct military operations, during which two KC-135R tankers provided aerial refueling.
The U.S. bomber flight path released by the South China Sea Strategic Situational Awareness Platform in May 2020.
Judging from the flight route at that time, two US B-1Bs flew to the South China Sea in two ways to practice the tactic of attacking and attacking in two ways. In fact, this tactic can be slightly changed and used in the direction of the Taiwan Strait or in the direction of our southeast coast.
It should also be noted that although the US military has recently placed special emphasis on mobile deployment and changed the "bomber continuous presence operation" that it has insisted on for many years, the "bomber task force operation" is not to return to the US mainland immediately after flying from the US mainland to the Western Pacific front for cruise and exercise, but is likely to rely on the Guam Anderson base and the US military base in Japan and other facilities for relevant deployment and exercises. The core is not to let the opponent know exactly which bases the US bombers are flying from and where they are going to fly to carry out the mission, so as to achieve the goal of "strategic predictability and unpredictable action".
In addition to this flight route, there are also some very strange routes, which make the outside world speculate that they are practicing attack routes. In August 2020, Aircraft Watch released information showing that two U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers with call signs RUDDY11 and RUDDY12 flew away from Anderson Air Force Base in Guam and returned to Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.
The aircraft watched the U.S. bomber flight roadmap released at the time.
However, the B-1B bomber with the call sign RUDDY11 did not fly on economic routes, but flew over the East China Sea, and its response signal disappeared near the Air Defense Identification Zone in the East China Sea. According to the "Aircraft Watch" speculation, the aircraft then turned to fly northeast, passing over the Tsushima Strait, then crossing over Japan, rendezvousing with another B-1B that turned off the coast of Japan over the east of the East China Sea and returning to the U.S. mainland.
Since then, the US bombers have repeatedly repeated their old tricks, flying around the air defense identification area in our East China Sea before returning to their home bases.
Some experts believe that unlike ordinary flight training, B-1Bs stationed in Guam are likely to return to the United States with live ammunition. It may use such opportunities to practice ground and sea attacks. In this case, the route is likely to be a typical route that enters the firing position, performs a simulated attack, and then disengages.
The fourth scenario is not around China, but with another high-end U.S. rival, Russia, a simulated nuclear weapons delivery by U.S. bombers. However, this tactic of practicing around Russia can be completely implemented in another sea and airspace.
U.S. B-1B bomber
According to TASS, Russian Defense Minister Shoigu said on November 23 local time that the Russian military noticed that the activities of the US Air Force strategic bomber units in areas close to the Russian border are rising sharply, and nearly 30 flights have been made nearly 30 times near the Russian border in the past month, an increase of about 2.5 times over the same period last year.
Shoigu also said that this month, the United States dispatched 10 US strategic bombers to use nuclear weapons against Russia in both the eastern and western directions, and the nearest flight was less than 20 kilometers from the Russian border. Therefore, Shoigu reminded during a video dialogue with the Chinese defense minister that the activities of US bombers near Russia's eastern border also pose a threat to China, and "in the face of this situation, coordination between Russia and China is becoming a stabilizing factor in international affairs."
The above-mentioned combing of the US bomber drill and cruise mode cannot exhaust its combat mode, because the three major strategic bombers of the US military may have more tactics in actual operations, but it can be seen from this that the US military is making a series of major adjustments to the strategic opponents in the Western Pacific region, which can be seen from the budget increase of the latest "Pacific Deterrence Initiative" released by the United States.