"We do in fact plan to deploy THOR in CY21 for operational field assessment, but will not confirm deployment locations or theaters at this time," an Air Force spokesman says.
Air Force wants China and that other, much poorer competitor known as Russia, to worry the US is in the early stages of fielding weapons systems that will tip the strategic see-saw to the American side. As outgoing Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson made clear here today, it is, in part, a cost-imposition strategy.
As aircraft shrink, threats expand, and technology accelerates, aircraft engines must iterate along with the threats.