China Army Closing Tech Gap With U.S., Pacific Air Chief Says

[onebyone]

A F18 Super Hornet prepares to land on the deck of the USS Eisenhower. The Pentagon in a report released in May said China’s rapid military modernization “has the potential to reduce core U.S. military technological advantages.”


Photographer: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
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• U.S. air force retains `huge' edge via training, she says
• Chinese pilots abide by last year's agreement, says Robinson

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China’s military is closing the technology gap with the U.S., though the experience of America’s pilots still gives them an “unbelievably huge” edge, according to the Pacific Air Forces chief.

General Lori Robinson, in Singapore to attend the country’s air show, said she felt assured that Chinese pilots would act professionally in interactions with the U.S., citing a Septemberagreement on rules of behavior. U.S. military pilots flying in the contested South China Sea have been warned over radio -- sometimes repeatedly -- by Chinese voices telling them to leave, while Japanese planes have been challenged in the neighboring East China Sea.

USAF General Lori Robinson

Photographer: Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty Images
Since coming to power President Xi Jinping has prioritized modernizing the military with a focus on the navy and air force, as he seeks to project power outward and assert China’s claims to territory in the waters of the West Pacific. That has included greater spending on longer-range and higher-tech ships, planes and submarines, while the People’s Liberation Army has also focused on improving training and standards for its fighter pilots.


“The technology gap certainly is closing, there’s no denying that,” General Robinson said Tuesday in an interview. “The difference between that technology gap is the training that the United States air crew get. That training and the way our airmen work every single day, no matter what platform that they are on, and all the people that support those airmen to do that job. That edge is unbelievably huge.”

China’s Capabilities
The Pentagon in a report released in May said China’s rapid military modernization “has the potential to reduce core U.S. military technological advantages.” China is “investing in capabilities designed to defeat adversary power projection and counter third-party —- including U.S. -- intervention during a crisis or conflict,” according to the report.

Security analysts, however, have expressed doubt about the ability of China’s military pilots, noting a substantial portion of their training time was spent learning doctrine. That has raised concerns about them acting rashly when in proximity to planes from other nations.

Shortly after she took her post in October 2014, Robinson said the U.S. was concerned Chinese jets may engage in further risky intercepts. A Chinese fighter flew within 20 feet of a U.S. P-8 Poseidon aircraft flying at more than 400 miles an hour near Hainan Island -- China’s gateway to the South China Sea -- in August of that year, an encounter the Pentagon described as “unsafe and unprofessional.”


Territorial Tensions
The core of U.S.-China air tensions is what activities are permitted within a country’s 200-mile (322-kilometer) offshore exclusive economic zone, where coastal states have sovereign rights over marine resources. The U.S. says international law permits such flights, which have been a standard practice for decades. China objects, claiming such freedom is reserved for civilian aircraft.

China contests more than 80 percent of the South China Sea, putting it at odds with fellow claimants including Vietnam and the Philippines in a body of water that annually hosts $5 trillion in shipping. In the past two years, China has reclaimed more than 3,000 acres in the sea and is building military facilities there. It has made greater use of fishing and maritime surveillance boats to warn off other vessels in the area, blurring the lines between its navy and coast guard.

‘Excessive’ Claims
Last month the U.S. sent a warship into waters contested by China, Vietnam and Taiwan to challenge the “excessive” maritime claims of all three. It was the second time in less than six months the U.S. has challenged China with a freedom-of-navigation voyage. During the first operation by the USS Lassen, where it passed within 12 nautical miles of Subi Reef in the Spratly island chain, it was shadowed and warned by Chinese vessels.

USS Lassen

Photographer: Hoang Dinh Nam/AFP via Getty Images
Robinson said the U.S. would continue to fly in international airspace when required. “Any airplane that we need to go from point A to point B in international airspace will do that,” she said. “It’s not unusual for us to fly throughout the region and international airspace.”

When asked if the Chinese were still warning U.S. military planes away from the South China Sea, she said “they are talking, but mostly in my world from airplanes to airplanes everybody has acted professionally in accordance with the rules of behavior.”

Robinson, who joined the Air Force in 1982, is the first woman to have an Air Force command. She was previously vice commanderof the air combat command at the Langley Air Force Base in Virginia before taking her current role in Hawaii, according to her Air Force biography.

She said any discussion of the U.S. having to cede ground to China in Asia as that country’s economic and military clout grows was hypothetical.

“What I depend upon today is our presence in the region, because our presence in the region provides that stability and capability in the region,” she said. “Our presence in the region allows for us to have partnerships throughout the region.”
China Army Closing Tech Gap With U.S., Pacific Air Chief Says - Bloomberg Business

 

[seven7seven]

Experience does have value, of course, but it's a double-edged sword. US has only had experience in fighting rag-tag armed forces using their overwhelming technology. This can lead to a false sense of superiority and complacency which is dangerous when they have to go up against a near-peer adversary, like China.

In truth, I don't think USA or China will dare fight each other directly. Too much to lose for both sides. It's why USA is doing their utmost to stir the hornets nest and get smaller SEA nations to become their proxies in a regional conflict. It might work as some of these nations, namely Vietnam and Philippines, are getting drunk and delusional on the attention lavished on them from their idol, America. Maybe war is good for both China and USA, as the former gets to test out their new military strength and the latter gets to tie China down in an expensive war and sell arms at the same time. The biggest losers are always the little guys who are not smart enough to see that they are being used.