Posted on 01/06/2011 2:27:44 PM PST by lbryce
China is still years away from being able to field a stealth aircraft, despite the disclosure of images indicating that it appears to have a working prototype, Pentagon officials said on Wednesday.
The images have been posted on a number of websites and were published on the front page of The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. The Pentagon said they appeared to show a Chinese J-20 stealth fighter prototype making a high-speed taxi test.
The disclosure of the photographs comes just days before U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is due to travel to Beijing on Sunday, and analysts could only speculate about the motives for their sudden appearance.
"This might be just a way of demonstrating that whatever obstacles there might have been (to China developing these technologies), they've overcome them," said Randy Schriver, a China expert and former State Department official for Asia.
The pictures are likely to heighten concerns about China's military buildup, including possible deployment in 2011 of its first aircraft carrier and a new anti-ship ballistic missile seen as a threat to U.S. aircraft carriers.
Some analysts say that the J-20 photos, if authentic, are a strong indicator that China is making faster-than-expected progress in developing a rival to Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor, the world's only operational stealth fighter designed to evade detection by enemy radar.
But U.S. Vice Admiral David Dorsett, director of naval intelligence, said deployment of the J-20 was years away.
"It's still not clear to me when it's going to become operational," he said. "Developing a stealth capability with a prototype and then integrating that into a combat environment is going to take some time."
He dismissed any suggestions that the Pentagon had underestimated China's stealth capability.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
“The F-35 is NOT a successor to the F-22, right?”
No, it was supposed to be cheaper and more numerous, with additional ground-attack capability.
“80% of the fighter at 50% of the cost” plus A/B abilities was sales pitch I heard one day.
LLS
It's laughable.
It is not.
Think of the F22 as the successor to the F15 and the F35 as the successor to the F16.
We have like 185 Raptors...and will be building about 2,200 of the F35.
Of course we need about 400 of the Raptor...but the F35 number is a good one.
They don't have to leap-frog us. All they have to do is close the gap enough that our losses in combat exceed our ability to replace them.
I have a feeling even the F-35 is going to suffer the same kind of cuts as the F-22, and it's combat capability is lower. I believe the Marine version doesn't even have cannon, which is INSANITY!
I agree with that.
But if you shoot down 300 US aircraft and sink 3 US aircraft carriers you would then have to deal with total, and complete, US domination in nuclear weapons and delivery systems.
That's only if they use nukes to achieve it. For first-use of nukes by us would require a President with a Pat Buchanan personality. See any of those among the current GOP or Dem establishment? Bush Jr. couldn't show any spine during the EP-3 incident. So far our track record on aggression by China, as well as trade issues, is very poor.
Considering how much industry and technology has disappeared overseas (or just disappeared) they could collapse our military production just by interdicting or intimidating our foreign suppliers.
Of course the Pentagon would give the POTUS the first right of refusal on such matters. However, if the US suffered such losses there is no way the Generals and Admirals would not act independently if necessary.
In fact, Standard ROE is that you protect Nuke Assets with Nuke Assets.
Even the Russians and Chinese have the same doctrine.
A US Carrier or a US Heavy Bomber is by all assessment a Nuke Asset.
That's all fine in theory, but I don't think there's anyone in the chain of command with the nuts to go first-use with nukes. Zero probably has secret exec orders forbidding it. Besides, I believe all our tac-nukes have been withdrawn. Only strategic weapons remain in ready status. ICBMs & SLBMs.
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