<p >The United States, Japan and Australia are scheduled to conduct their first joint large scale military exercises, Cope North, on the American Pacific territory of Guam, with drills scheduled to take place from February 3 to 21. Tokyo and Canberra are considered to of Washington’s most significant strategic partners for responding to possible contingencies in the Pacific, with the three states having launched joint exercises with growing frequency bilaterally, trilaterally, and at multilaterally with other partners. Cape North exercises will be hosted at Andersen Air Force Base, which is considered the U.S. Air Force’s most important facility outside the continental United States. Exercises will focus on enhancing interoperability between the fleets of F-35s and other assets deployed by the three countries, and on aerial combat and large force employment. Japan will deploy six F-35As, two E-2D AEW&amp;Cs, and a KC-46A tanker, to Guam for the exercises. The country is the largest foreign client for the F-35, with orders having been placed for 147 of the aircraft.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p ><img src=" title="Japanese Air Self Defence Force F-35A at Andersen Air Force Base"></p><p >Andersen Air Force Base has long been seen as priority targets for Chinese and North Korean&nbsp;attacks in the event of war due to its position at the crux of America’s power projection infrastructure in the Pacific. The facility’s distance of around 4000 kilometres from the two countries is considered to provide a greater degree of security than closer bases in Japan and South Korea, which were depended on more heavily in the Cold War era when Chinese and North Korean strike capabilities were much more limited.&nbsp;Andersen Air Force Base is <a href=" target="_blank">planned to be protected</a> by the densest air defence network in the world in the 2030s, with up to 20 new air defence sites expected to be constructed on Guam by the mid-2030s. The multi-billion dollar investment in these defences reflects both concern in the Pentagon with major advances made in Chinese and North Korean capabilities to target Guam, as well as the vital importance of facilities on the territory. Nevertheless, the deployment of multiple-warhead ballistic missiles, a growing range of cruise missiles, and increasingly sophisticated hypersonic glide vehicles by both countries leaves the survivability of facilities on Guam in very serious question.</p><p ><img src=" title="Chinese DF-26 `Guam Killer` Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles"></p><p > </p><p >Although the distance of facilities on Guam from potential adversary states is considered a leading contributor to their survivability, it also seriously limits the value of F-35 units deployed on the island. The F-35’s combat radius of approximately 1000 kilometres covers only around one quarter of the distance needed to fly sorties against Chinese and North Korean targets, with even heavier and longer ranged aircraft such as the <a href=" target="_blank">Chinese J-20 stealth fighter</a> having a combat radius of a little over 2000 kilometres. This ensures that offensive operations using the F-35 from Guam will rely very heavily on support from aerial tankers such as the KC-135 to refuel them. The vulnerability of tanker assets, however, is considered to be high against new generations of Chinese aerial warfare assets, which has in turn fuelled a growing consensus in the U.S. Air Force that a tanker class with stealth capabilities is required.&nbsp;The deployment of F-35s to simulate air combat over Guam will notably occur little over one month after China <a href=" target="_blank">unveiled a new class </a>of heavyweight sixth generation fighter, which is speculated to have a combat radius wide enough to threaten targets on the territory without a heavy reliance on aerial tankers.&nbsp;</p>
U.S., Japan and Australia to Deploy F-35As For War Drills at Key Guam Airbase
