United States to deploy 18 F16s to Guam
Friday, May 25, 2007
ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE: Washington will deploy 18 F16 fighter jets to Guam, a US Pacific territory within striking distance of regional hotspots, for four months from May 30. “It’s not an aggressive measure. It is not in response to any particular situation,” Master Sgt Arthur Webb said on Thursday. “It is an adjustment that shows our flexibility in maintaining an appropriate deterrent posture.”
He declined to say whether the deployment, a first for Guam, would be extended or become permanent. The F16s, along with 400 personnel and support equipment, will come from a fight squadron in New Mexico.
The United States plans to move 8,000 Marines and 10,000 dependents from the southern Japanese island of Okinawa to Guam by 2014 as part of a global realignment of US forces.
Guam has had a US military presence to varying degrees since 1898, when US naval forces captured it from Spain. reuters
Why are the Americans slowly moving away from Japan? Do they fear a Korean nuclear attack or something?