Does The U.S. Need To Be Building Hardened Aircraft Shelters For Its Combat Aircraft?
The US military and Congress are increasingly butting heads over aircraft shelters even as threats, especially from drones, grow.
BY
JOSEPH TREVITHICK, TYLER ROGOWAY
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Aircraft shelters with varying degrees of hardening are seeing a renaissance of sorts in response to growing drone and missile threats. China alone has built over 400 new hardened aircraft shelters across various bases in recent years, not to mention many other shelters offering lower tiers of protection. This trend is being seen in other countries like Russia, North Korea, and Iran. At the same time, a debate is now heating up between the U.S. military and Congress about the value of building new defensive infrastructure for its aircraft. Aside from a few forward locales, the United States does not invest in robust shelters for its combat aircraft, which is increasingly looking like a stark vulnerability.
This all comes as drones, in particular, have completely reshaped discussions in the United States about what is necessary to adequately defend air bases and the aircraft they host, both abroad and at home. Ukraine's recent attacks targeting Russian Su-57 Felon next-generation fighters sitting out in the open at a major test base far from its border have only underscored this threat.
To Harden Or Not To Harden?
In May, a group of 13 Republican members of Congress penned an open letter to the heads of the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy seeking information about plans for new hardened aircraft shelters and other passive defensive measures at bases across the Pacific region. John Moolenaar, the Chairman of the House's Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and Marco Rubio, the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, were among the letter's signatories.
"Despite the grave threat to U.S. bases... over the last decade, it is China, not the United States, that has built more than 400 hardened aircraft shelters," the letter noted, citing analysis from the Center for a New American Security and Hudson Institute think tanks. "During the same period, the United States built only twenty-two additional hardened shelters in the region, on U.S. bases in Japan and South Korea. Notably, there are no hardened aircraft shelters in Guam or CNMI [Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands]."
https://www.twz.com/news-features/does-the-u-s-need-to-be-building-hardened-aircraft-shelters-for-its-combat-aircraft
