Fifteen F-22s, along with a contingent of airmen, from the 90th Fighter Squadron at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, are scheduled to deploy in January to Andersen AFB, Guam, for about three months. This deployment is part of a normal rotation of US combat forces in the Western Pacific region, according to Air Force officials at Hickam AFB, Hawaii. Elmendorf F-22s have deployed on several occasions to Guam as part of these US Pacific Command theater security packages that provide stability and deter aggression in the region. F-22s from Langley AFB, Va., similarly deploy at times to Kadena AB, Japan. (Hickam report)
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…