Satellite Photos Show US Reclaiming World War II Airfield for China War

U.S. Air Force is bringing back an overgrown airfield on a small island in the Pacific .

The North Field airfield is being brought back to life under an Air Force operational concept called Agile Combat Employment .

The goal is to have the rejuvenated runway serve as a "power projection platform" The project's precise completion date is unknown.

Planning must account for China 's long-range ballistic missiles, which can reach U.S. military sites throughout the region.

The survival of American air and naval power is crucial to any plan to intervene in a Chinese amphibious invasion of Taiwan .

China 's Rocket Force possesses a variety of conventional and nuclear-armed missiles with a range of up to 3,400 miles .

Tinian is 1,500-1,700 miles from the Taiwan Strait and the contested East and South China seas.

The Air Force is likely to use Tinian as an alternate site for bomber flights currently operating out of Guam .

In 2018 , a pair of B-2 Spirit stealth bombers flew to Wake Island for hot-pit refueling training.

The remote coral atoll is some 2,500 miles southwest of Hawaii and 1,500 .