GarryB Tue Jun 25, 2019 4:40 am
Interesting article, but this caught my eye...
The goal of these strategies and concepts is to create a plausible theory of victory whereby China or Russia avoid a “fair fight” with the Joint Force and could therefore defeat the United States and its allies and partners in a regional war.
Hahahahahahahaha... no body plans for a fair fight... no body...
Even in Desert Storm they tried to convince Saddam that it was going to be a huge amphibious invasion, and in both conflicts they largely fought at night because they had superior night vision equipment on their armour... no one wants a fair fight in war... that is just stupid... you always find your enemies weaknesses and use those to make your victory cheaper and easier.
All the American eggs are in the air power basket... and the combination of long range AAMs to take down inflight refuelling tankers and AWACS and JSTARS aircraft... all they really need is anti stealth capability and the US is screwed because the cost of stealth fighters has dramatically reduced they number they can afford to buy and operate.
Originally they demanded a minimum of 1,500 F-22s but the end of the cold war and the cost per aircraft reduced that to 750 and then less than 200 were actually made...
They said they wanted 3,500 F-35s, yet the airframe live has gone from 8000 hours to less than 2000 hours, the RAM on the tail surfaces bubble and fail when you fly faster than the speed of sound and the shared oxygen generation and delivery system is faulty and tries to suffocate the air crew... and the prices keep going up... and a number of customers are reducing the number they want...