can any Mil/IntelFags confirm and opine on significance?
seems guam could be a sitting duck like pearl harbor, a FF setup for the cabal to start a war? memeber the missile launch at AF 1 type thingy? ideas anyone, dia stuff not my area.
The U.S. Air Force has ended its uninterrupted rotations of bombers to Andersen Air Force Base on Guam, which have been ongoing since 2004, as it shifts to a less predictable concept of operations. Five B-52H Stratofortresses left yesterday with no replacement aircraft in place, bringing an end to what the service had called the Continuous Bomber Presence Mission. This notably came just days after the bombers took part in a massive "elephant walk" readiness drill that also involved six KC-135R aerial refueling tankers, an RQ-4B Global Hawk drone, as well as a U.S. Navy MQ-4C Triton drone, and an MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter, which was seen as a significant statement of American resolve aimed China.
Online aircraft tracker and friend of The War Zone @AircraftSpots spotted the five B-52Hs leaving Guam for their home at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota on Apr. 16, 2020. The bombers used the very pointed callsign "SEEYA" for the transit.
USAF B-52Hs SEEYA01, 02, 03, 04 & 05 departed Andersen AFB, Guam en route home to Minot AFB, North Dakota. pic.twitter.com/woOBYDT8fq
— Aircraft Spots (@AircraftSpots) April 16, 2020
"In line with the National Defense Strategy, the United States has transitioned to an approach that enables strategic bombers to operate forward in the Indo-Pacific region from a broader array of overseas locations, when required, and with greater operational resilience, while these bombers are permanently based in the United States," U.S. Air Force Major Kate Atanasoff, a U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) spokesperson, confirmed in a statement to The War Zone. "U.S. strategic bombers will continue to operate in the Indo-Pacific, to include Guam, at the timing and tempo of our choosing."
Starting in 2004, the Air Force began deploying B-52s, as well as B-1B Bone supersonic bombers and B-2A Spirit stealth bombers, for six-month stints to Andersen on Guam as part of the Continuous Bomber Presence Mission. As its name indicates, the concept of operations was meant to ensure that at least one task force of long-range heavy bombers was in position at the immensely strategic base at all times to respond to potential contingencies in the Pacific Region. The bombers on Guam had been a cornerstone of U.S. power projection and deterrence capabilities to the region since then.
The service had indicated earlier this month that it was interested in switching to shorter duration bomber deployments to Guam. At the same time, the U.S. military, as a whole, has also increasingly adopted a concept of operations known as Dynamic Force Employment, which aims to make major deployments less predictable in order to keep potential opponents, such as China and Russia, on edge. It also serves to demonstrate America's ability to project force around the world on short notice and with little advance warning for adversaries.
As part of this push, the Air Force has been experimenting with sending bombers to new or less common deployment locations in the Pacific, as well as in Europe. In 2018, B-2A Spirit stealth bombers notably made their first-ever visit to Wake Island, albeit briefly, during a longer duration deployment to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
There had been some indications that the end of the Continuous Bomber Presence Mission on Guam was imminent in the past week or so already. On Apr. 14, PACAF posted a pair of B-52H pictures on the official Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) website, with the title "Last Continuous Bomber Presence Mission on Guam." Sometime after that, the title was changed to "Andersen remains ready," which was also used to describe the photos of the elephant walk on Apr. 13.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/33057/the-continuous-strategic-bomber-presence-mission-to-guam-has-abruptly-ended-after-16-years