A little more than half a month remains until the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, as well as the departure of the odious Obama administration from the White House. And the first sharp reaction of the new president's entourage to the latest foreign policy steps of the outgoing regime is already noticeable. So, on December 30, 2016, the assistant to the newly elected President Kellin Conway, called the next package of anti-Russian sanctions signed by Barack Obama, another attempt to "corner" Trump. The reaction is more than objective and reflects the desire of the current regime to bring the most destructive background to the positive outlook on Russian-American relations as soon as possible.
Undoubtedly, the new "elite" in Washington will be more accommodating and adequate in relations with Moscow, but drastic changes on key geostrategic issues and concept should not be expected. As we said earlier, Donald Trump has a solid share of hostility towards the Celestial Empire, which is confirmed with the note "Important!" in a publication posted on the military-analytical resource "Military Parity" on December 16, 2016, citing a source at the headquarters of the US Pacific Fleet. It is reported that this year, in order to "fend off the aggressive military-political steps of Beijing", an air wing of the 5th generation F-22A "Raptor" stealth fighters of the US Air Force will be transferred to one of the airbases of the Australian Air Force. This was announced by the commander of the US Pacific Fleet, Harry Binkley Harris. He also pointed to a very important detail for our today's review, which is the continuation of Washington's policy of tough containment of China in the Asia-Pacific region even after Donald Trump came to power. This only speaks of the desire to "raise the degree" in the territorial dispute between the Celestial Empire, as well as Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan and Japan over the island archipelagos of Spratly and Diaoyu.
The news really deserves close attention and analysis, since only the fact that it was announced by Admiral Harry Harris, who is not directly related to the fighter aircraft of the US Air Force, testifies to the scale of the anti-Chinese operational-strategic company being developed at the Pentagon. Several operational fleets of the US Navy (3rd, 5th, and 7th), as well as many tactical and strategic aviation squadrons of the US Air Force, will be involved in it. At the same time, the US Navy and Air Force will operate in a full-fledged systemic coordination with each other, as well as with the involvement of the allied fleets and air forces of the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The main command-and-staff link of the anti-Chinese group, apparently, will be precisely the objects of the US Navy deployed in Guam, Hawaii and Australia, which are at a sufficient distance from the borders of Chinese operational-tactical dominance. Naturally, such details were not announced by Harris.
The beginning of the militarization of the Asia-Pacific region as part of the opposition to the People's Republic of China by the United States began to be seen in early 2016, when the next, very standard for Washington, accusatory speech by the US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Damien Picart, where the latter pointed to the threatening regional "expansion" of the PRC into the region, as well as the retaliatory deployment of B-1B "Lancer" strategic missile bombers at Australia's Tyndall Air Force Base. There was also additional information about the transfer of strategic refueling aircraft KC-10A "Extender" to the Australian Aviation Bureau, designed to increase the duration of the combat duty of "Lancers" near the Chinese maritime borders. Linking these three news into a single prognostic material emphasizes the formation in Australia and the Pacific Ocean of a powerful strategic strike group of the US Navy and Air Force, which should have the following capabilities:
Strategic air tankers KC-10A "Extender" are the main element in this bundle, since the range from Tyndal airbase to the disputed areas of the South China Sea is about 4000 km, and to operate the F-22A at such a long distance, at least 4-5 refueling in the air, including the use of 2 external fuel tanks of 2270 liters. Why can't Raptors be deployed at military airfields in the Philippines or Avb Andersen (Guam) in order to shorten the flight time to the South China and East China Seas? The answer is elementary - because these bridgeheads hit the radius of destruction of modern Chinese medium-range ballistic missiles DF-21A / D. The 2nd artillery corps of the PLA has more than 100 of them.
The deployment of "Raptors" and other types of military aviation on the Tindal Aviation Base provides the necessary groundwork for safety for many years to come. For the defense of this airbase, there is a huge space with a length of 3000 km (from the Arafur and Timor Seas to the southern part of Biendong), where a powerful echeloned regional missile defense line can be built in the form of several Aegis destroyers and a floating multipurpose radar complex SBX, capable of intercepting Chinese MRBM both in the initial and in the final sections of the trajectory. In addition, in the event of a successful "breakthrough" of the Chinese H-6K bombers to the launch lines of the CJ-10A TFR on Tyndall, the American carrier-based aircraft will have much more time to intercept these cruise missiles than in the case of Okinawa or the Philippines, the flight time to which less than half an hour. Tyndal airbase is a very problematic and dangerous foothold of the enemy for the PRC, for the United States it is becoming more and more profitable, and therefore we should expect the emergence of a new vast area of tension in the APR.
