PENTAGON RAISES SPECTER OF IMPROVING CHINA AIRPOWER

[Zarvan]

by Greg Waldron

Singapore: The US Defence Department's annual report on Chinese military capabilities has underlined the evolution of Chinese airpower.

The report looked at all aspects of Chinese military power, including the traditional pillars of the land, air, and sea forces, as well as emergent capabilities such as electronic warfare and cyber warfare.

"The [People's Liberation Army Air Force] continues to modernise and is closing the gap rapidly with Western air forces across a broad spectrum of capabilities," says the report. "This development is gradually eroding the significant technical advantage held by the United States."

The Pentagon estimates that the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) has 2,700 aircraft, making it the world's third largest air force. It continues to induct fourth generation fighters, while developing new types such as the Chengdu J-20 and Avic FC-31.

FIFTH GENERATION BOMBER

Work is also underway on upgrading the nation's bomber fleet. This includes a new bomber that will appear around 2025.

"These new Chinese bombers will have additional capabilities with full-spectrum upgrades over the current bomber fleet, and will employ many fifth-generation technologies in their design."

Beijing's fleet of Xian H-6s will also continue to be upgraded, with an emphasis on standoff weapons. The latest variant of the aircraft, originally based on the Tupolev Tu-16 Badger, is the H-6K, which has improved turbofans and capacity for six long-range standoff weapons.
A map detailing ranges of various Chinese weapons systems shows that H-6K's with land attack cruise missiles can prosecute targets 3,300km away. Airborne early warning & control (AEW&C) assets are also being further integrated, and China continues to develop its unmanned aircraft system (UAS) capabilities – both armed systems and ones dedicated to intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.

Pentagon officials expect China's second aircraft carrier to be ready in 2020, but contend that its ski-jump configuration will limit the payload capacity of its air arm.

BETTER TRAINING

In addition, Chinese airpower is likely to benefit from major structural reform in the overall Chinese military, which is marked by a gradual decentralisation of control. The PLAAF will also benefit from increasingly rigorous and realistic training.

The report reiterated known issues with China's military aerospace sector. While it has become increasingly advanced, and is now capable of producing a range of fighter and transport aircraft, it still suffers key technological weaknesses, namely in the crucial area of jet engines.

Nonetheless, Beijing is committed to advancing key technologies and a section of the report deals with Chinese espionage.

"China very likely uses its intelligence services and employs other illicit approaches that violate U.S. laws and export controls to obtain key national security and export-restricted technologies, controlled equipment, and other materials unobtainable through other means," says the report.

It lists several cases in which individuals attempted to obtain sensitive US technologies and export them to China, including one case involving fighter engines.

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/a...s-specter-of-improving-china-airpower-438047/

 

[Gomig-21]

Very impressive what China has done. They took the development of an aircraft and figured the most difficult part -- that of building the engines -- would be substituted by using Russian made ones or indigenous copies for the time being and concentrate on the actual construction/production of the aircraft themselves, no short order in that matter, either, and that eventually they will have developed the ability to build their own, domestic engines. A very sound plan, IMO. The R&D along with the production of (not only viable but very competitive builds) and all other aspects of building a fighter are no small tasks. But they've been very smart at this and started a long time ago with the copying and manufacturing of their own versions of fighters (whether it was done legally or not), starting with the Shenyang F-5 copy of the MiG-15 back in 1951. Really the only way to do it for a country in it's position, considering the political climate of the time. Their determination and self-learning at any cost has been rewarded with what we see today. Their understanding and developing of metallurgy, avionics, production concepts (another testament to Chinese determination and work ethics) and all the very difficult concepts of building an aircraft can only be compared to the US and Russia, more so the latter. Same thing with all their other military equipment. To see where they are today is really impressive.

Besides the most glaring feat in the J-20, the fact that they whipped up the J-10 and now the J-10B like it was no one's business, while France, BA-EAP and the Swedes invested so much time and effort into their delta/canard platforms is just incredible. This seemed like a side project to the Chinese...and what a beauty!

 

[royalharris]

USA,we are still developing country,not interested to play games with you
Focus your attention to the big powers like Russia, India,turkey etc.

 

[KAL-EL]

USA,we are still developing country,not interested to play games with you
Focus your attention to the big powers like Russia, India,turkey etc.

USA cannot focus its attention on any one of those or China, because USA has turned into a third-world military power with very primitive technology.

 

[royalharris]

USA cannot focus its attention on any one of those or China, because USA has turned into a third-world military power with very primitive technology.

oh, this is not classic USA sytle
remember your duty of world police, don't be lazy