F-35A JSOW certification imminent

a reply to: JIMC5499

Well, going after tankers is not like going after ships.
You can figure out the very rough location of the tankers supporting sorties from Andersen, Kyushu or the Northern Philippines, just by looking on a map. OTH on the coast will be of help too, as will the airborne AEW they are building up. Then just have the J-20s go out and have a look. Tankers are big assed targets and KC-Z won't be around for at least twenty years.
Chances are you're going to lose som running into the tanker CAP, but if you get a couple of PL-15s off, the other side will have a very bad day.
Their tankers (which they have far too few off at this point) will be operating inside their A2AD bubble.

I'm not saying the US couldn't effectively fight China today.
Indeed if we'd be talking all-out war, it would be a simple matter of establishing a naval blockade, knocking out some critical infrastructure like pipelines and power plants and wait for their country to dissolve into Civil War within a year or two.
I don't think the US will have many other options if they are serious about winning a war with China ten or twenty years from now. But I also don't think we would have the stomach for something like that and I fear the Chinese think on similar lines.

originally posted by: mightmight
a reply to: JIMC5499

Well, going after tankers is not like going after ships.
You can figure out the very rough location of the tankers supporting sorties from Andersen, Kyushu or the Northern Philippines, just by looking on a map. OTH on the coast will be of help too, as will the airborne AEW they are building up. Then just have the J-20s go out and have a look. Tankers are big assed targets and KC-Z won't be around for at least twenty years.
Chances are you're going to lose som running into the tanker CAP, but if you get a couple of PL-15s off, the other side will have a very bad day.
Their tankers (which they have far too few off at this point) will be operating inside their A2AD bubble.

I'm not saying the US couldn't effectively fight China today.
Indeed if we'd be talking all-out war, it would be a simple matter of establishing a naval blockade, knocking out some critical infrastructure like pipelines and power plants and wait for their country to dissolve into Civil War within a year or two.
I don't think the US will have many other options if they are serious about winning a war with China ten or twenty years from now. But I also don't think we would have the stomach for something like that and I fear the Chinese think on similar lines.

You beat china by blockade and stopping them from getting supplies. Also dropping poison on their rice fields would work well,by high altitude rocket assisted delivery systems that if shot down still deliver their payloads by gravity.

Those"carrier killers" they boast about require Satellites to guide and the first thing destroyed in a war on CHina is their sat system,and locking them out of GPS networks.

Best weapon against CHina is its own people who would overthrow their leaders if they started starving in the millions. Is my plan cruel? yes. Effective? yes. WOuld that make me the new STalin? prolly. lol.

a reply to: yuppa

Chinas space program is already the biggest in the world. Ten years from now, their satellite constellations will equal those of the US military.

Taking them out will not be a viable option in anything but all-out war. Orbital warfare is equivalent to something like the strategic bombings in world war two, since any wide-scale attack against satellite constellations will render many it not the majority of useful orbits unusable.
You might as well get if over with and nuke them, it would be less disastrous for our modern way of life.

originally posted by: mightmight
a reply to: yuppa

Chinas space program is already the biggest in the world. Ten years from now, their satellite constellations will equal those of the US military.

Taking them out will not be a viable option in anything but all-out war. Orbital warfare is equivalent to something like the strategic bombings in world war two, since any wide-scale attack against satellite constellations will render many it not the majority of useful orbits unusable.
You might as well get if over with and nuke them, it would be less disastrous for our modern way of life.

I fit was full on war you think we woudnt obliterate all satellites in orbit if the enemy could use them? We do have a Space craft that can do it on the DL too if need be though. We could always clean up space after with junk scows.

a reply to: yuppa

Yes, I don't think the US would take out the Chinese satellite constellations if it were forced into fight anything but a full-scale war.
Public awareness about the implications of orbital warfare is rising and perception is changing rapidly due to the emergence of mega satellite constellations like Spacelink. We already see much moaning about regular space debris. Expect this to get much worse as satellites are deployed in unprecedented numbers and new ASAT solutions reach operational capability.
As said, wide-scale orbital warfare will be equivalent to strategic bombing of world war two levels. The public in the west won't stand for it and going down that route would have severe implications for public support of the war.
If the Chinese start rendering entire orbits useless for a very long time, the perception would be somewhat different, but even then the media-fueled public opinion would probably gravitate towards a cessation of hostilities.
There's just no desire in the West to face an existential threat for our way of life over China snatching some islands.
To put it bluntly, nobody wants to lose their Facebook and Netflix over East Asia going to war with itself.