Paratroopers assigned to the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, ... [+] U.S. Army Alaska, conduct a Joint Forcible Entry Operation jump into Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, on June 30, 2020.

The U.S. military probably has enough warplanes to win a war with China in the western Pacific. What it doesnt have is enough bases.

But maybe American troops could borrow those bases ... from China. By dropping paratroopers or landing Marines on some of Beijings new island outposts.

Distance is the great destroyer of tactical air power, especially in the vast Asia-Pacific region. Most modern fighters can fly and fight no farther than 500 miles from their bases. Refueling tankers realistically can add a few hundred miles to a fighters combat radius.

The amount of air power China and the United States can bring to bear in a war over, say, the disputed islands of the South China Sea depends in large part of how many bases each country can set up, supply and protect within 500 miles of the major battle zones.

Aircraft carriers qualify as bases, and on that count the U.S. Pacific Fleet, with its five nuclear supercarriers and five smaller assault ships, has the advantage over the Chinese fleet and its two medium carriers. None of Chinas assault ships can support fixed-wing planes.

But China since 2013 has built unmoving aircraft carriers in the form of island outposts in the Spratly and Paracel island chains in the South China Seas. Several of the 27 outposts include runways, in particular Fiery Cross, Mischief and Subi Reefs in the Spratlys and Woody Island in the Paracels.

The island bases, plus the scores of airfields along the coast in southeast China, allow Beijing to disperse its warplanes. This dispersal can help to protect planes from U.S. missile and bomber raids.

Fiery Reef.

American planes by comparison normally are concentrated on a smaller number of permanent bases. Kadena air base on Japans Okinawa prefecture is the main hub for U.S. and allied tactical air power in the western Pacific. During a crisis, the base could host hundreds of fighters and support planes.

The Pentagons other major base in the region, in Guam, is 1,750 miles from the South China Sea. Andersen Air Force Base usually hosts bombers, tankers and spy planes, all of which possess much greater endurance than fighters do.

Its not for no reason that, in a major war, China almost certainly would target Kadena. When the Center for a New American Security, a Washington, D.C., think-tank, gamed out a war in the East China Sea this summer, a Chinese missile attack on Kadena effectively ended the simulation.

The Pentagon knows it has a problem. The U.S. Navy is building a new airfield on Mageshima just south of the main Japanese islands. The U.S. Marine Corps recently redeveloped a World War II airfield on Tinian.

But Mageshima and Tinian both are a thousand miles from the South China Sea. The U.S. Air Force has developed procedures for breaking up its squadrons and dispersing small fighting units across a greater number of airfields. The Marines long have practiced similar expeditionary air operations.

But they need more basing options. If China craters Kadena and sinks or damages a couple of carriers, Americas F-15s, F-16s, F-22s and F-35s wouldnt be able to reach the war zone without a huge surge in aerial tankers flying from Guam or major, and risky, intervention in the conflict by a U.S. ally such as The Philippines, Vietnam or Singapore, countries whose own bases could put U.S. air power in range of the South China Sea.

U.S. Air Force Airmen and U.S. Marines refuel and rearm F-15C Eagles from Kadena Air Base, Japan, ... [+] during an Agile Combat Employment exercise on Feb. 21, 2020, at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Japan.

Theres an alternative. A risky but promising one. U.S. troops could capture some of Chinas island outposts. If they succeeded, American fighters could surge into the heart of the South China Sea.

Dont think the Pentagon hasnt thought about it. Back in July, 350 paratroopers from the Armys 25th Infantry Division flew in Air Force C-17 transports from Alaska to Guam and practiced dropping onto, and capturing, a simulated enemy airfield.

The Air Force is buying containerized deployable air base systemsa.k.a., bases in a boxthat can help engineers quickly re-establish operations on battle-damaged, captured airfields.

The Marine Corps still trains to storm beaches and capture airfields, just like it did during World War II. The Navy has developed a whole new doctrine for helping air, ground and amphibious forces seize, hold and supply far-flung outpostsall while under fire by Chinese missileers.

Beijing knows its islands are in Washingtons crosshairs. China has fortified many of the islands with radars, missiles and guns and practiced flying air patrols over them. In a crisis, expect the Peoples Liberation Army to reinforce the islands with additional planes, weapons and troops.

Seizing a Chinese outpost would be tough. An airborne force would have to penetrate dense air-defenses. An amphibious flotilla would have to fight its way past Chinese submarines and anti-ship missile batteries. A base-seizure operation could end up looking a lot like the bloodiest battles of the Pacific Theater of World War II.

But capturing Chinas island bases also could go a long way to negating a key Chinese advantageby dismantling the main infrastructure propping up Beijings South China Sea strategy.

See more here:

China Is Counting On Island Outposts To Project PowerBut U.S. Troops Could Capture Them - Forbes