The “Hudson Institute” Research Organization in the United States (US) released a Report earlier this Year of 2025 called, "Concrete Sky: Air Base Hardening in the Western Pacific" which says that US Military Air Bases in Asia are vulnerable to attacks by China, including those that are in the Philippines.
At the same time, China has increased the number of its Aircraft Shelters and Runways and increased protection for them, making it more difficult for the US to destroy them. China now has 134 Air Bases within 1,852 km of the Taiwan Strait, and these Bases contain 650 Hardened Aircraft Shelters (HAS) and 2,000 non-Hardened Aircraft Shelters (NHAS).
In contrast, the HAS and NHAS of the combined Forces of the US, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines in the same Area is only approximately less than one-half that of China, or around 1,200. The Philippines in particular has no HAS and only around 20 NHAS.
As a Result of this, the Report estimates that it will be easier or will need less Bombs and Missiles for China to destroy the US and Allied Air Shelters, only around 1,700. Vice-versa, it will be harder or will need more Bombs and Missiles for the US to take out China’s Air Shelters, almost double at around 3,100.
You can access the Report itself at the HI Website here: https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/media.hudson.org/Concrete+Sky+-+Air+Base+Hardening+in+the+Western+Pacific+-+Shugart+-+Walton.pdf
MY THOUGHTS:
This was the Report that I mentioned about a number of times before that, due to one Reason or another, was not able to post about … until now. Note that as the Report mentioned or implied, “hardening” an Air Shelter doesn’t make them Bomb or Missile-proof, it will just take more hits from them to do so.
So even if we “harden” all of our 20 Air Shelters right now and also put Missile and Gun Protection around them, China can still go out and destroy them. Remember that China produce their own Missiles, so they can make and use a lot more of them than we can, and against a determined and sustained attack, all our Air Shelters will be destroyed.
This is the Reason why despite the Fact that I think Sweden is a piece of Sh*t for denying their JAS-39 Gripen Fighter Aircraft to the Administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte (fakk you, Sweden), I still think that their Gripen is the best Fighter Aircraft choice for us because then they are not tied to fixed Air Shelters or Runways.
With the Gripens, every Highway or even Road can become their Runway and Air Shelter. We can even set it up that they take off from one Road, and then land on another so any opposing Country won’t know where to look.
And even if the F-16C Fighting Falcon Block 70 has better overall Performance than the Gripen, it is useless if they are just going to be destroyed on the Ground anyway. And at such expense, those F-16s costs a lot more than even the Bataan-Cavite Interlink Bridge.
The F-16 of course, can also take-off and land on Roads and Highways, or do Part of what’s called as “Dispersed Operations”, but it can’t do it at the same Degree of Operational Effectiveness and Flexibility as the Gripen because that Capability isn’t as deeply embedded into its Design as it is with the Gripen.
SOURCE: Concrete Sky: Air Base Hardening in the Western Pacific {Archived Link}
