Andy Wong Ming Jun
For the first time, the US Air Force is deploying fighter jets to the secretive, remote island military base of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, a powerful signal to China about the survivability of US combat airpower in the Asia-Pacific.
The deployment, announced on November 18, is part of the Air Force’s Agile Combat Employment (ACE) doctrine, a program that relies on dispersing aircraft to multiple, smaller locations instead of large, traditional bases to counter potential threats by aggressors seeking to deny strategic space to the US military.
The 7,000 km distance between Japan’s Kadena Air Base on Okinawa and Diego Garcia is significantly farther than those between American Pacific bases like Pearl Harbor or Guam, and with anticipated Chinese-contested battle spaces in the Western Pacific over Japan and the Taiwan Strait. The deployment on short notice, given the F-15E Strike Eagles’ maximum ferry range of about 4,450 km, is a demonstration of the ACE force’s agility, requiring midair refueling over the ocean in a complicated ballet involving tanker aircraft like the KC-135 Stratotanker or KC-46 Pegasus, allowing them to extend their range, transforming them from regional to global assets.
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