Seoul, Korea
CNN
–
The shocking drone strike against Ukraine’s Russian strategic bomber fleet this week marks concerning the situation as generals and analysts re-seen the threat to high-value US aircraft at their homeland and overseas bases.
“This is the moment to raise your eyebrows,” U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff General David Albin added at a defense conference in Washington on Tuesday that the US is vulnerable to similar attacks.
“There are no sanctuaries in the US either, especially considering that the home base is inherently completely unbearable,” Thomas Sugart, a senior assistant fellow at the New America Security Center (CNAS), told CNN.
“Unbearable” means that Sugart doesn’t have enough shelter to park American fighters, whether it’s a drone or a missile, that’s difficult enough to protect them from airstrikes.
Ukrainian military officials said 41 Russian aircraft were hit by attacks that included strategic bombers and surveillance aircraft in last Sunday’s attack, some of which were destroyed and other aviations were damaged.
Later analysis shows that at least 12 planes have been destroyed or damaged, with satellite image reviews continuing.
Ukrainian businesses used drones smuggled into Russian territory, hidden in wooden mobile houses above trucks and driven near four Russian air bases.
Near the base, the roof of the mobile house was opened remotely and the drones deployed and began the strike.
Russian planes were covered on the base runways, just as American fighters were in their homes and in their facilities overseas.
“We’re pretty vulnerable,” US General Stanley McCrystal told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday.
“We have a lot of high value assets that are very expensive,” says McChrystal.
The Ukrainians said the attacks destroyed a Russian aircraft worth $7 billion. In comparison, a single US Air Force B-2 bomber costs $2 billion. And there are only 20 in the US.
Sugart co-authored a report from the Hudson Institute in January, highlighting the threat to US military facilities from China in the event of a superpower conflict.
“People Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, ground-based missile launchers, surface and underground vessels, and special forces attack forces can attack US aircraft and their support systems at airfields around the world, including on the US continent.”
According to war game simulations and analysis, “the overwhelming majority of US aircraft losses can occur on the ground at airfields (and the losses can be catastrophic),” Sugart and Walton write.
Last year, a report by Air and Space Forces Magazine noted that Pacific Island of Guam’s Anderson Air Force Base (probably the most important aviation facility in the Pacific Ocean) hosts rotations of B-1 and B-52 bombers.
USAF Chief of Staff Allvin confirmed the issue Tuesday.
“Now, I don’t think that’s where we need to be,” Allvin told the CNA meeting.
McChrystal said the US must consider ways to protect its bases and aircraft.
“It expands the spectrum of threats you have to deal with,” McChrystal said.
But that costs money and Allvin said it would present the US a budget dilemma.
Spend defense dollars on hardened shelters and use more resources on ways to stop drones and missiles from attacking US bases, or offensive weapons that fight enemies?
“If all we’re doing is defense and we can’t shoot, then that’s not a good use of our money,” Allvin told the CNAS conference.
“We’ve always known that strengthening the base was something we needed to do,” Allvin said, but other items are given budget priorities.
The cured aircraft shelter is not flashy and it is unlikely to generate headlines for other defense projects, including planes such as the new B-21 bomber.
And US President Donald Trump recently said the Air Force will build a new stealth fighter F-47 at an initial cost of $300 million per aircraft.
“The F-47 is a great aircraft, but if you don’t protect it, you’ll die on the ground,” says Allvin.
Meanwhile, Shugart and Walton say the hardened shelter costs around $30 million.
Last month, Trump revealed another form of air defense of the Golden Dome missile shield, which is the mainland of the US.
Despite its huge price tags, it is designed to counter long-range threats, like intercontinental ballistic missiles fired from different hemispheres.
In Russia, the vastness of its territory was considered a strength in the war with Ukraine. One of the air bases hit by Ukrainian operation “Spider Web” was closer to Tokyo than Kiev.
But now the size of Russia is a weakness, writes David Kilichenko on the Atlantic Council’s Ukrainian Watch Blog.
All boundary intersections can be penetration points. All freight containers on all highways or rail lines must be handled with suspicion.
“This is a logistical nightmare,” Kirichenko said.
And there is a direct analogy to the US.
US Air Force bomber bases are usually common inland, but large and small vehicles are accessible.
For example, all 20 B-2 bombers are stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. Though about 600 miles from the nearest coastline in the Gulf of Mexico, thousands of commercial vehicles pass by each day, about 25 miles south of Interstate 70, one of the US’s main east-west transit arteries.
Dice Air Force Base in Texas, one of the US B-1 bomber homes, is located just south of Interstate 20, another east-west commercial artery.
“Think about all the containers and illegal entrants within our borders,” said Carl Schuster, former operations director at the United States Pacific Command’s Joint Information Center.
“That connection causes alarms in some US circles,” he said.
Meanwhile, in the Pacific, if a conflict occurs with China, even better US offensive firepower may not be enough, as General Allvin would have hoped.
According to a report from the Hudson Institute, PLA worked together to protect the aircraft during a massive military accumulation under the leaders’ committee Xi Jinping.
China has more than 650 hardened aircraft shelters at the airfield within 1,150 miles of the Taiwan Strait, the report says.
But Sugart and Walton argue that the best move Washington could make is to build Beijing more by improving the US strike capabilities of Asia.
“In response… PLA will likely continue to spend money on additional costly passive and aggressive defence measures, and will be less committed to alternative investments, including strikes and other power projection capabilities,” they said.