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[ WARRIOR NEWS ].///\\*|||.
B-1 BOMBERS HEADED TO AUSTRALIA:
MAY 14, 2015.
The U.S. is sending B-1 bombers and surveillance aircraft to Australia as part of an important shift in the way we posture our forces in the 'Asia-Pacific-region', a defence official told Congress on Wednesday.
That shift includes troop rotations to the Philippines and moving Marines from Okinawa to Hawaii, Guam and Australia, David Shear, assistant secretary of defence for Asian and Pacific affairs, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"We will be placing additional Air Force assets in Australia as well, including B-1 bombers and surveillance aircraft", he said.
Shear did not say where those aircraft would come from or when they would arrive in Australia.
A Defence Department spokesman had no further information about the aircraft deployments on Thursday.
"DoD has routinely deployed 'heavy-lift' bomber assets through Australia in the past, including a B-52 visit last December", Marine Lt. Col. Jeffrey Pool said in an email to Air Force Times.
"With regard to our force posture initiatives in Australia, we are currently exploring a range of options for future rotations with our Australian counterparts".
"The specifics of future force posture cooperation are yet to be finalized".
The U.S. and Australia reached an agreement in November 2011 to increase the U.S. military's presence in Australia.
"Our Air Force will rotate additional aircraft through more airfields in Northern Australia", President Obama said at a November 16, 2011, news conference.
"And these rotations, which are going to be taking place on Australian bases, will bring our militaries even closer and make them even more effective".
"We'll enhance our ability to train, exercise, and operate with allies and partners across the region, and that, in turn, will allow us to work with these nations to respond even faster to a wide range of challenges, including humanitarian crises and disaster relief, as well as promoting security cooperation across the region".
In 2013, General 'Hawk' Carlisle, then commander of Pacific Air Forces, said training missions to the Pacific would be "modelled after 'Checkered Flag' deployments during the Cold War".
The deployments, which lasted from 1978 to 1997, typically involved state-side active-duty squadrons deploying once every two years to Europe to become more familiar with NATO airfields.
At the time, the Air Force was much larger than it is now, so the system involved about 15 fighter deployments and four bomber deployments per year.
AUSTRALIAN MILITARY TO GET BOOST AS AMERICA BULKS UP PRESENCE IN ASIAN-PACIFIC-NATIONS:
MAY 15, 2015.
A TOP US military official has outlined America’s plans to bulk up its presence in Australia and other Asia-Pacific nations as China attempts to assert de facto control over disputed territories.
B-1 bombers, surveillance and other aircraft will be sent to Australia, David Shear, the assistant secretary of defence for Asian and Pacific affairs, told a US Senate foreign relations committee hearing in Washington DC.
Long-endurance, high-altitude remotely piloted Global Hawk aircraft and F-35 fighter jets will be in Japan, four combat ships in Singapore by 2020, a 'Virginia-class-submarine' in Guam, and 'significant-numbers-of-marines' in 'Australia', 'Hawaii' and 'Guam'.
"We will be placing additional air force assets in Australia as well, including B-1 bombers and surveillance aircraft", Shear told the committee on Wednesday.
The hearing was titled Safeguarding American Interests In the East and South China Seas and Shear was quizzed about America’s military deployments in the region.
He said, "The US had noted a 'pattern-of-behaviour' that raises concerns that China is trying to assert de facto control over disputed territories, and strengthen its military presence in the South China Sea".
"We are concerned that the scope and nature of China’s actions have the potential to disrupt regional security", he said.
"Though increased military capabilities are a natural outcome of growing power, the way China is choosing to advance its territorial and maritime claims is fuelling concern in the region about how it would use its military capabilities in the future".
<source> (news.com.au)
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