Air Force deployed bombers to Guam

Move came as talks between Koreas were taking place.

The U.S. Air Force quietly deployed three stealth B-2 Spirit bombers to Guam last week as discussions between the North and South Koreans involving the Winter Olympics were about to commence, a move that the service says was scheduled in advance but came at a particularly sensitive time.

The bat- winged B-2s and 200 airmen deployed to Andersen Air Force Base on the U.S. island territory from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. They are part of what the U. S. military characterized as a shortterm deployment that is part of the Pentagon’s bomber assurance and deterrence mission in the Pacific. The Air Force has rotated bombers in the Pacific for 15 years in a show of support for its allies in the region.

But the deployment of B-2s during the Winter Olympics - and shortly after President Donald Trump taunted North Korea by tweeting Jan. 2 that his “Nuclear Button” was bigger than North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s - may be seen as inflammatory in the region. The planes have stealth technology and the ability to carry nuclear weapons, something that the B-1B Lancer bombers deployed to Guam last year do not have.

B-2s also are the only aircraft capable of dropping a relatively new conventional 30,000-pound bomb known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which is designed to pierce hardened bunkers and tunnels such as the ones in North Korea.

Marine Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the director of the Pentagon’s Joint Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday that it would be wrong to view the bomber deployment “within the single lens of what it means to the Korean Peninsula.” It affects allies across the Pacific, he said.

McKenzie, asked if the United States is also sending amessage to China with the deployment, said “we send a signal to everyone” when the Pentagon moves bombers across the globe.

McKenzie declined to rule out the possibility of airstrikes against North Korea during the Olympics, citing the Pentagon’s policy of not talking about future operations.

U. S. Pacific Air Forces disclosed the deployment Wednesday night, and the Pentagon released several photographs of the planes landing on Guam on Monday.

B-2s have been deployed in the Pacific before, however, including briefly in October during a demonstration of resolve in the region. Trump agreed in October to a South Korean request to send more “strategic assets” to the region - a move that the Pentagon left murky, but typically includes the deployment of bombers.

On Tuesday, leaders from the two Koreas met to discuss the Winter Olympics, which will takeplace in Pyeong Chang, a few dozen miles from the border between the Koreas. North Korea agreed to senda delegation of about 500 athletes and officials to the Winter Games.