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Originally Posted by Lune
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Gonna have to disagree with you there on China being a paper tiger. Their defense scheme is directly managed under a cohesive set of objectives and parameters, while the US has kinda evolved into a government-sponsored profit enterprise that produces a whole lot of assets that are ineffectual in modern war.
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I agree the procurement process was the greatest boondoggle, but when money printer go brrrrrr it's not really a prime concern. We'll do better next time, maybe. Operationally the plane is a monster.
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The Department of Defense (DOD) has sunk so much money into the F-35 — which is expected to cost US$1.5 trillion over the 55-year life of the program — that the Air Force has taken steps to make sure that the unmitigated disaster that the F-35 has become does not happen again.
But despite these issues, US military pilots have given rave reviews to the F-35, claiming extraordinary battlefield situational awareness. Some experts say a wave of F-35s would decimate anything within an operational theater.
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https://asiatimes.com/2019/07/stealt...vs-usafs-f-35/
Yes, pilots are raving about it.
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In situational awareness, the F-35 is superior to all platforms, including the Raptor. I’d never been in an airplane that so effectively and seamlessly integrates information to tell me what’s going on around me—and not just from the radio frequency spectrum, but laser, infrared, electro-optical. That’s usually the first thing people notice when they get in the airplane. They know so much more than they ever knew before.
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https://www.airspacemag.com/military...est-180971734/
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Japan has ordered another 105 F-35 stealth fighters. This will cost $23 billion and include spare parts, including 110 engines and additional electronic and other accessories. With earlier purchases this new order will give Japan 147 F-35s. That large force of stealth fighters won’t be in service until the mid-2020s because of growing demand for F-35s and limited production capability. Japan will help by manufacturing some components and assembling their F-35s in Japan.
All this Japanese F-35 news was not welcome in China. Combined with South Korean F-35s, China now has to deal with over 300 F-35’s operating near its northern borders. In the 1990s Chinese support for an aggressive and unpredictable North Korea prompted South Korea to become a major developer, manufacturer and exporter of modern weapons. Now Japan, with a larger population and industrial base than South Korea has followed South Korean in an arms race with China.
Japan also asked to have its status as a F-35 upgraded from buyer to partner. That will mean Japan will build more components for F-35s, not just its own but for other customers as well.
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https://strategypage.com/htmw/htproc.../20200731.aspx
Sure they have missiles and stuff. They need operational command and control to use them. They need working radars. Ours will by flying and nearly invulnerable, theirs are going to get turned into piles of rubble one after the other.
We have another advantage. We have have three giant unsinkable aircraft carriers parked on their borders; Taiwan, Korea and Japan. The former will be provide a nice soak-off, the latter will provide offensive capability from too many airfields for the Chinese to neutralize. We're
building another one here which is conveniently just outside their effective missile range.
The Chinese defenses are all static. All those nice South China Sea islands are just sitting ducks. We can pull into range, launch a strike and leave with no repercussions. They should build another dozen targets for us like that. I've read how Van Riper cheated his way to victory, but when I wargame a fight with China I put all the assets I need at extreme range, launch overwhelming strike against target, and move out of range to rearm - because I'm not stuck in a tiny body of water, I have the entire world. After a week of this China has no ground-based radar left and all their 'helicopter' carriers and the rest of their surface navy have become new reefs. I do have some plane attrition and sometimes a carrier is disabled and a couple of frigates sunk to a sub. Oh well.
Chinese planes are held together with rice and dogma. Their J-series has
trouble finding export market because no one trusts the thing to work right. Worst of all, their pilots have zero operational combat experience. They've never been over a hot zone or lit up for real, and any pilots who could pass that experience on are dead or irrelevant. This is a real problem with their armed forces. They have no experience with anything. They don't take their Navy through the Straits of Hormuz and do real battle drills. They don't fly over Syria and Iraq dodging AA fire and they don't get lit up by Iranian radar. They've never bombed Bosnia, Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. Their tanks only shoot at range targets. Their infantry storms building with cardboard cutouts. They don't fight a war like we do every 10-15 years.
Any conflict with China look for India to take what is rightfully theirs, further diluting Chinese power. It must suck to be surrounded by nations which totally hate you. I guess shouldn't act like a giant asshole. And China is asshole.
In two decades none of this will matter. Space Force will take care of it. You can't function if your life is inside a giant EMP.
08-05-2020, 07:37 AM
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