US Air Force Prepares Jungle-Attack Targeting Forces in Guam

By Kris Osborn, President, Warrior

Intense heat, humidity, wild animals and disease dangers are merely a few of the challenges associated with the rigors of Jungle Warfare, where overgrowth, trees and vegetation obscure targeting, complicate maneuver operations and present survivability problems.

Certainly the US Army has for years been training and preparing for Jungle Warfare in strategic areas such as the Philippines and other high-risk areas of the SouthEastern Pacific, yet special US Air Force Security Forces are now training for warfare in the jungles of Guam, a well-known US territory and military outpost in the Pacific theater.

The US Air Force 736 Security Forces Squadron is now conducting jungle survivability combat operations in the jungles of Guam in the vicinity of Andersen Air Force Base. An Air Force essay explains that special units are practicing survival techniques, water purification and “evasion tactics” in the jungles of Guam. Certainly a forward operating Air Force ground presence could offer valuable contributions to a joint-warfare campaign involving US Navy surface ships, aircraft and Army ground infantry, but these Air Force units also likely offer some unique, tailored combat attributes less available in the other services. They could operate as a joint surveillance or multi-domain targeting node and also provide specific to air warfare combat tactics. Jungle capable forces could also help operate and direct drones and organic ISR for fast-maneuvering ground units and Special Operations Forces. This could include overhead fighter jets, surveillance planes and even small and medium-altitude drones supporting ground units. 

Jungle Targeting and Counter Attack

Specially-trained Air Force jungle units could make otherwise dangerous inhabitable jungle areas survivable for critical targeting forces such as forward-positioned Joint Tactical Air Controllers task with specifying, finding, highlighting or even laser “painting” targets for attacking fighter jets and bombers. This ability to provide location specifics or any target-related intelligence information could be absolutely “vital” in jungle areas as growth, trees and jungle vegetation could easily obscure enemy targets from electro-optical sensing or identification from the air. Also, jungle heat could “confuse” or “complicate” infrared targeting seeking to track maneuvering heat sources, as it would likely be difficult to discern temperature differences or heat signatures in a “hot” jungle. Given these variable, a ground-based, jungle targeting unit could support air-ground attack coordination in an otherwise impossible fashion. This is of great relevance for the future, as the US military refined successful air-ground targeting coordination techniques in attacks on the Taliban in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. 

Guam Puts US Bombers Within Range of Taiwan, Mainland China

Guam is known to of course be home to US bombers, fighter jets and air defense weapons systems in support of regional security efforts such as Bomber Patrol Task Forces, deterrence missions, multi-national collaborative training. Perhaps most of all, Guam offers a US-owned forward “node” or land base in the Pacific theater, a place from which long-range bombers can operate and hold areas at risk across the theater. Guam, for example, is roughly 1,500 nautical miles from Taiwan and 1,800 miles from the Chinese coastline, a circumstance which places Taiwan, The South China Sea and even the Chinese coastline well within reach of US Air Force B-2 bombers which operate with a 6,000 mile unrefueled range. Fighter jets such as an F-35, by comparison, operate with a range of roughly 1,300 miles, a range which places 5th-generation fighter jets within range of Taiwan with refueling. Also, the four hour flight from Guam to Taiwan travels directly over the Philippines, a country with a fast growing US military presence and ample re-fueling possibilities. Also, while many air defense systems such as Patriot missiles would not reach skies above Taiwan, the US does operate many medium and intermediate range ballistic missiles capable of reaching mainland China which is less than 2,000 miles from Guam. However, Guam’s range can present challenges as well, especially for fighter jets in need of refueling and some ballistic missiles, a scenario which makes ocean-launched Tomahawks or Taiwan and Philippine-launched weapons and jets in better position to present China with a closer-in attack or counter strike ability.