Tensions on the Korean peninsula have not prompted any significant changes in the Air Force’s Pacific posture, Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh reported Monday at a Pentagon press conference. Welsh noted that three B-2 bombers deployed to Guam for a “scheduled rotation” to Andersen Air Force Base and that this would be in addition to the usual bomber presence missions there. USAF forces also remain “ready” in South Korea, but have not been put on an especially high alert, Welsh reported. “Nothing additional” is being moved in response to the situation in Korea, he said.
No matter what happens with the Nunn-McCurdy review of the Sentinel ICBM program, the nation must have a land-based element of its nuclear triad, Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief William LaPlante told the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee.