The Air Force will send three B-2 bombers to Guam as part of a normal rotation to bolster ally South Korea, Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh said Monday.
“We are in the process right now of deploying three B-2s on a scheduled rotation to Andersen Air Base in Guam,” Welsh said. “We continue to have airmen stationed on the Korean pPeninsula who are there full time who are ready for whatever might happen, and they are ready everyday.”
Welsh declined to say when the bombers would deploy, noting the sensitivity of operational information.
The Air Force routinely sends bombers to the Pacific to project power and to be ready for any situations that might arise. In 2013, B-2 stealth bombers flew directly into South Korean airspace as a warning to North Korea.
Welsh’s comments come as North and South Korean leaders meet to reduce tension that began after patrolling South Korean soldiers were injured by a land mine in the two nations’ Demilitarized Zone.
The general said he didn’t see any drastic changes to the situation on the Asian peninsula.
“I think there’s a lot of worrisome things about Korea, but I don’t think any of it’s new news,” he told reporters during a news conference.
Welsh said he personally does not track day-to-day information on North Korean missile capabilities — both conventional and nuclear — but that it’s something the Pentagon is very concerned about.
“Certainly they have a missile that can reach Hawaii or U.S. facilities in the Pacific, so that’s what we’re most worried about,” he said. “I think it’s something we have to pay a lot of attention to and we do every single day.”
