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Originally posted by gladtobehere
reply to post by solidshot
Shame that in 2012, nations are still pursuing weapons.
But the US mafia wont stop attacking countries who wont cooperate.
In all honesty, China could easily bring the US to its knees. All they would need to do is liquidate their debt and flood the market with bonds. After the initial sell off, a panic would ensue. RIP the US and the dollar.
Originally posted by Orwells Ghost
reply to post by steppenwolf86
It was said that during WWII a German Tiger could account for at least eight Allied Shermans. Fortunately the Allies manufactured thirty Shermans for every Tiger, so there was always that ninth Sherman available. During Cold War planning for a Soviet invasion of Western Europe, NATO estimated that given the amount of inferior armour the Soviets could pour through Poland, they would run out of ammunition within a month, leaving them with no option other than tactical nuclear strikes which would quickly escalate into all out nuclear war.
Yep, there's no doubt that the Chinese are behind in many areas. That's where the number's game comes in. China doesn't really need airframes with lifespans equivalent to their Western counterparts do they? Provided that the fighting is taking place in their region of the world, they need only fight until the opposing battle group runs out of munitions and delivery systems.
Originally posted by gladtobehere
reply to post by solidshot
Shame that in 2012, nations are still pursuing weapons.
But the US mafia wont stop attacking countries who wont cooperate.
In all honesty, China could easily bring the US to its knees. All they would need to do is liquidate their debt and flood the market with bonds. After the initial sell off, a panic would ensue. RIP the US and the dollar.
Originally posted by Orwells Ghost
reply to post by OccamsRazor04
The German's had super weapons too (wunderwaffe), they weren't enough.
Originally posted by Strakha
reply to post by Orwells Ghost
I agree and believe that industrial capacity is more important than technological advantages. The best current Chinese developed fighter is the J-10. One on one it won't beat the F-22 or even the mainline fighters of other powers. However in terms of cost to performance ratios it is impressive and based on an old but one of the best multirole fighters the US has produced - the F-16. This airframe was used in the Israeli Lavi program which was cancelled by Israel but picked up by the Chinese to create the J-10. The technology may be old but it is a solid design that was made better by Israel who isn’t exactly backward when it comes to tech. The F-35 will be the main fighter used by US allies in the future as well as the main fighter in the US fleet. For the price of 1 F-35 China can build 7 J-10's. So even if the J-31 or J-20 don't turn out to be a decent fighters in terms of cost to performance China could still have a formidable airforce if they decided to gear up for war and start mass producing J-10's. I agree it's not wise to underestimate them.
Originally posted by Zaphod58
reply to post by Orwells Ghost
That was the sub incident referred to in a previous post.
The biggest advantage that China has (besides the obvious one of numbers), is the fact that the US Navy is a blue water navy. They have problems with littoral operations in any kind of large numbers, which is why the LCS, and Virginia are being built (and from what I've read, the Freedom class LCS is a giant steaming POS). China will be able to push the Navy farther out to sea, to areas where the PLAN are still learning to operate well, so that the Navy will have to rely on tankers to get strike packages to their targets.
In response to the post that the Chinese will take 10 years to catch up to the US, it will take longer than that for them to catch us. Technologically, they may catch up within 10-20 years, but doctrine wise, it will take much longer than that. Doctrine plays a huge role in military success, as well as technology. You can have all the free electron lasers you want, or the biggest navy/air force in the world, and if you don't know how to use it "correctly", it's a moot point.
As for the comment that the Chinese won't even see the F-22/F-35s, yes they will. You are talking very limited numbers of stealth aircraft (even with the numbers of the F-35s planned on), against large numbers of conventional aircraft. Stealth does not equal invisible, just very hard to see. Sooner or later they WILL be seen, and tracked, and they WILL be shot down. A sniper (F-22/F-35) can't win the war, it just changes the playing field.
Originally posted by Zaphod58
reply to post by OccamsRazor04
Sooner or later, even if by accident, an F-22 or an F-35 is going to get caught in a dogfight. If they weren't ever going to get caught in one, then why do they train so hard at WVR during exercises? People can say dogfighting is dead all they want, but they're still going to eventually get caught in one.
All it takes is for a Raptor driver to make one mistake and he's caught in a furball. Or for one lucky Chinese pilot to be in the right place to get a radio call out and give away their position. The Raptor is not perfect, and it's not the be all end all of military aviation. It's flown by people, and people make mistakes all the time (look at the F-117 that was shot down, they flew on the same route every night, and got complacent).
China flies SU-27s, and other advanced Russian designs. Just because they're Chinese doesn't mean they aren't capable. Yes, they might get their heads handed to them by the F-22s, but all it takes is one in the right place at the right time, and you just lost an F-22.edit on 9/22/2012 by Zaphod58 because: (no reason given)