A Pentagon review of U.S. forces, due to Congress on Feb. 6, is expected to call for greater military emphasis in the Pacific, but war costs, budget cuts and old-fashioned politics may mean a decision on an aircraft carrier for Hawai'i is further away than previously expected.
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"Supporters of shifting a greater share of the Navy to the Pacific Fleet could argue that responding to China's naval modernization requires, among other things, maintaining an increased number of ships forward deployed to the Western Pacific," the Congressional Research Service report states.

Loren Thompson, a defense analyst with the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va., notes the rise of China as a military power, the shift of global economic competition from the Atlantic to Pacific, and loss of land bases in Asia as cases for forward basing in Hawai'i and Guam.

"If the Pentagon had its way, there would be more Navy and Air Force assets headed to Hawai'i next week," Thompson said. "The real question is whether Congress will permit this shift of resources from the East Coast to the Pacific."
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Thompson believes that with the likelihood small for any type of military challenge in Europe, preoccupation with the Pacific growing fast, and whatever the Quadrennial Defense Review says, Hawai'i is likely to attract more of the nation's military capability over the next decade.

He said that would include ships, perhaps special operations forces, and on the Air Force side, more C-17 cargo aircraft (Hickam Air Force Base is getting eight this year), electronics aircraft such as AWACS or Joint STARS, and even bombers such as the B-2 Spirit, famous for its bat-wing design.