China’s Air Combat Strategy Is Designed To Attack Support Assets, Not American Fighter Jets, by Duane

The Chinese are cleverly designing their air strategy to protect their immediate geographical interests and to exploit weaknesses in US air strategy. From Duane Norman at fmshooter.com:

China’s J-20 Fighter Prototype

It may sound hard to believe, and it might not intuitively make sense, but China is indeed fielding a fleet of 5th generation and 4++ generation fighter jets whose primary purpose will not be to do battle with American fighter jets.

Why? It’s quite simple. China likely knows that they cannot build a jet that will outperform the top US air superiority fighter, the F-22. So instead of going toe-to-toe with it in combat, they are instead choosing to target the aerial tankers, AWACS, drone, and other support aircraft that help make the F-22 so deadly.

To defend Taiwan or Japan, the US can rely on Japanese air bases, but Japan is a long way from the South China Sea. The KC-135 and KC-10 tankers (and the eventual KC-46 replacement) are essential to keeping the other assets in the air, in particular the E-3 Sentry AWACS.

Almost all US military aircraft, especially support aircraft not directly involved in combat, rely on tankers to stay in the sky. All US military airborne assets are far more effective with Airborne Warning And Control (AWACS) available, and they all rely on fighters to stay safe from air-to-air threats. Currently, the best air-to-air fighter in the US arsenal is far and away the F-22.

The F-22 is not only stealthy, it can out-maneuver anything currently in the sky today. In building this capability, the aircraft lacks range (limited to a combat radius of 529 miles), and is reliant on tankers to make it viable over extended distances. This is especially pertinent in the South China Sea, Taiwan Strait, and East China Sea, where most potential US-China conflict would take place. Currently, the best US airbases are located in Japan, with the closest location to China being Kadena Air Base in Okinawa.

To continue reading: China’s Air Combat Strategy Is Designed To Attack Support Assets