Air Force to expand Pacific region surveillance, multinational training.

The Air Force wants to extend the reach of its surveillance drones over the Pacific region by setting up refueling stations in several friendly countries in the area.

These refueling hubs would make it easier for the Air Force to operate its new fleet of Global Hawk high-altitude unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, said Gen. Paul V. Hester, commander of Pacific Air Forces, at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii.

"We are in discussions with several nations," Hester told reporters at the recent Air Force Association annual convention in Washington, D.C.

Among the candidate nations considering proposals to host Global Hawk bases are Japan, Singapore, Australia and South Korea.

These would not be major military bases, but rather modest "gas and go" refueling stations, Hester said. They would help extend the range of Global Hawk, which is the Air Force's most advanced surveillance drone.

Up to seven Global Hawks could be delivered in the coming years to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. Andersen is expected to also become a permanent home for U.S. Navy units in the near future.

Other countries in the Pacific region are being encouraged to acquire Global Hawks, but it's too early to tell what countries will buy the costly aircraft, whose price tag ranges from $55 million to $130 million, depending on the sensor package.

"If countries can't afford Global Hawk, maybe they can provide basing and refueling" as part of a cooperative security agreement, Hester said.

The desire of many nations to gain access to regional intelligence make surveillance tools such as Global Hawk a valuable "opportunity for multilateral discussions with allies," Hester said. The absence of a formal regional alliance comparable to NATO in the Pacific area has severely hindered multilateral relations.

"We do business bilaterally," Hester said. "There is no multilateralism in the Pacific. We are looking for opportunities to do business together."

Multilateral collaboration in Asia is "extremely difficult," said Navy Adm. William Fallon, head of U.S. Pacific Command. "They all want to go one-on-one, bilaterally. The United States would like to engage in trilateral talks with Japan and South Korea, for instance. But that is not likely to happen any time soon due to long-standing tensions between the two Asian powers.

One area that is ripe for multinational collaboration is training, Hester said. "We are re-scoping our exercise program with our allies. We are trying to transition away from bilateral to multilateral training."

The aftermath of the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia convinced several countries that they needed to step up their preparations for disaster recovery and humanitarian relief. Training exercises that are tailored to these operations tend to get more attention and increased participation in a region that is considered the world's "ring of fire" due to earthquakes and volcanic activities.

"Humanitarian relief is a good place to build on. Maybe if they do humanitarian relief together they won't want to shoot each other," Hester noted. "We have earthquakes, volcanoes, monsoons and we saw the effects of the tsunami in late 2004 and 2005. Those are situations that will most likely bring everyone together into international waters."

An example of this shift toward non-traditional training is the Cobra Gold military exercise, which is co-sponsored by the United States and Thailand. "It used to be just a few countries focused on combat," Hester said. "Now it has transitioned to humanitarian and disaster relief, so more countries want to participate."

Search-and-rescue drills at sea off the coast of California last month, meanwhile, saw U.S. and Chinese naval forces train together for the first time. This was an "easy first step" toward improving military-to-military relations with China, although much remains to be done, Hester said.

"We've often used rescue at sea as an opportunity" to work with other nations, he said. "It's an easy-to-write scenario." Combat rescue is one of those military missions that helps to build ties among forces from different countries.

Although the search-and-rescue exercise is a positive development in U.S.-China military affairs, the nations are nowhere close to planning any joint war games.

The likelihood that China could one day participate in one of the U.S. Air Force's major exercises such as Red Flag is remote, at best. "Maybe in decades to come," Hester said.

Fallon said China is the "biggest issue" for military leaders in that area.

During the past five years, he said, military-to-military exchanges with China have lagged and this lack of interaction contributes to a chilly relationship between both countries, particularly since the 2000 incident in which a U.S. Navy patrol aircraft collided with a Chinese fighter jet off the coast of China.

"I'm amazed at how few people have had any interaction with our folks," Fallon said. Most one-star and two-star Chinese officers rarely ever have personal contacts with U.S. military representatives. "Their impression of us is based on assumptions and what they are told" by their senior commanders, Fallon said.

Unlike what many Americans might believe, China is "not a clone of the Soviet Union." It is unfortunate, Fallon said, that the U.S. government sometimes treats China as if it were the evil empire.

There is a lack of "fundamental understanding" from both sides, said Fallon. "From the military side, frankly, we haven't been very engaged with them in the past five years. There's a long way to go."

The recent search-and-rescue exercise will be followed by a similar drill in November, off the coast of China.