By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The U.S. Air Force will establish a regional hub in Guam for deploying advanced fighter jets and other aerial assets by October to cover Korea and other Asia-Pacific regions in case of an emergency, according to a report published by the South Korean Air Force Thursday.
The report said four high-altitude Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles will be moved to an airbase in Guam by the end of the year. The spy aircraft is expected to conduct surveillance and reconnaissance missions against China and North Korea.
The Global Hawk is known to be able to survey vast areas with near pinpoint accuracy from as high as 65,000 feet for up to 35 straight hours.
In addition, the Pentagon will deploy 48 high-tech stealth fighters ― F-22 Raptors and F-35 Lightening IIs ― bombers and air tankers to the hub base by 2014, according to the report.