“We will take another look” at sending more such muscle to the strategic hub of Guam in the western Pacific, now that this has been recommended by an independent review of U.S. regional military plans, Robert Scher, deputy assistant secretary of defense for plans, told lawmakers.
US strategy calls for shifting military, diplomatic and economic resources toward the region after a decade of land wars in Iraq and Afghanistan sparked by the September 11, 2001, attacks.
The Defense Department, however, must weigh the issue from a broad global perspective and take into account competing requirements, Scher testified before the U.S. House of Representatives‘ Armed Services subcommittee on readiness.
Guam, a US territory about three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to the Philippines, played an active role during the Vietnam War as a way station for US bombers. The Air Force operates from the island’s Andersen Air Force Base, which hosts a rotational unit of B-52 bombers. The major US Navy presence includes a squadron of three attack submarines.
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