Posted on 01/16/2011 11:56:17 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Much has been written over the past few days about how the Chinese military's decision to flight-test its new J-20 fighter during a visit by U.S. defense secretary Robert Gates was an embarrassment for China's civilian leaders. Apparently, nobody in the Peoples Liberation Army had bothered to mention the flight to President Hu Jintao, so Gates was the first person to give him a heads up. Imagine how it feels to find out from a visiting foreign dignitary what your own military is doing -- the military that you supposedly lead.
But the person who should really be embarrassed is Secretary Gates, because apparently the former anticommunist hardliner has been so lulled into complacency about high-end security threats by his tenure at the Pentagon that he failed to grasp the rapidity of China's military build-up. Gates terminated production of the Air Force's next-generation F-22 air superiority fighter in 2009 at barely half the service's stated warfighting requirement, saying that China wasn't likely to field something similar before 2020. He may yet turn out to be right, but the fact the PLA is flight-testing a plane that looks a lot like the F-22 only 20 months later doesn't say much for Gates' sources -- or his judgment
(Excerpt) Read more at lexingtoninstitute.org ...
I’m beginning to think we’re trading China secret technology for loans.
I think you are right. The J-20 looks too much like the F-22. It can’t be a coincedence.
Sounds very Clintonesque.
exactly.
Look on the bright side, it won’t be necessary for a PLA pilot flying the latest model to defect since we already have a jet just like it.
So what? Gates representing the US Armed Forces embarrasses me. Guess we’ll call it even.
What a galactically stupid statement!! As if the capabilities of a machine, war or otherwise can be determined by the shape of the metal around it.
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