American F-35 Joint Strike Fighters had at least one close encounter with China’s 5th-generation J-20 over the Pacific in March of this year, and the response from Air Force officials has been somewhat mixed.
While the commander of Pacific Air Forces described the fighter itself as “nothing to lose sleep over,” he qualified his dismissive statements with positive observations about how Chinese forces are operating their first stealth aircraft.
“It’s a bit early to say what they intend to do with the J-20, so really all we’ve seen it do is air superiority,” explained Pacific Air Forces commander Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach in a March video uploaded by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
“But we notice that they are flying it pretty well. We recently had – I wouldn’t call it an engagement – where we got relatively close to the J-20s along with our F-35s in the East China Sea, and we’re relatively impressed with the command and control associated with the J-20.”
Related: Stolen stealth fighter: Why China’s J-20 has both US and Russian DNA
The first stealth fighter born outside of the US (sort of)
Despite Russia’s Su-57 Felon beating China’s J-20 into the air in 2010, Russia’s limited defense budget and struggling economy have resulted in slow progress and numerous setbacks for its stealth aircraft program. As a result, China’s Chengdu J-20 Mighty Dragon, which flew for the first time in 2011, managed to beat the Su-57 into service by a three-year margin in 2017. Since then, China’s produced as many as 150 stealth fighters, rapidly eclipsing Russian Su-57 production and placing China squarely in second place in terms of global stealth fleets.
The J-20’s roots date back to China’s J-XX program which began in the late 1990s. By 2008, some 11 years after the F-22 Raptor’s first flight, Chengdu’s Project 718 was chosen to move forward as the basis for the country’s first stealth fighter. Nevertheless, the design chosen would see significant revisions in 2014 before being declared “combat ready” and put into production in 2017.
Related: More than missing guns: Why America lost dogfights over Vietnam
Like many of China’s aircraft, evidence suggests the J-20 was not designed from scratch. The aircraft appears to borrow heavily from earlier stealth fighter programs out of both the United States and Russia — specifically, America’s F-35 and F-22 programs and Russia’s now-defunct MiG 1.44. But while comparisons to the MiG are based mostly on design similarities, comparisons to American fighters are based on China’s access to a plethora of design documents from both programs.
In August of 2014, a Chinese national living in Canada named Su Bin (who also often went by Stephen Su) was arrested for leading a hacking effort to steal over 630,000 files from American aviation firms like Boeing and Lockheed Martin for the Chinese government, including F-22 and F-35 “blueprints” that would “allow [China] to catch up rapidly with U.S. levels … [and] stand easily on the giant’s shoulders,” according to his own emails that were entered as evidence.
Related: China’s J-20 stealth fighter is gaining on America’s top jets
How does the J-20 compare to American stealth fighters?
The single-seat, twin-engine Chinese fighter has a wingspan of just more than 42 feet, a bit shy of the F-22’s 44′, and an overall length of 69 feet 7 inches, considerably longer than the F-22’s 62′. China has struggled to field the jet’s intended 5th generation engines, known as WS-15s, which are expected to produce some 44,000 pounds of thrust each. As a result, many of today’s J-20s fly with either Russian-sourced AL-31s capable of producing 33,000 pounds of thrust each, or more recently, China’s own equivalent, the WS-10C.
The aircraft’s top speed is rated as Mach 2, with a combat range of 1,100 nautical miles, and a service ceiling of 66,000 feet. It’s capable of carrying four medium or long-range missiles inside its primary payload bay, as well as two additional short-range air-to-air missiles in small secondary bays on either side of its fuselage.
The J-20 is often compared to America’s air superiority F-22 Raptor, but technically speaking, it was designed to fill a different role. While the Raptor was always intended to dominate air combat, the J-20 was originally meant to fly deep into enemy territory to conduct strikes against ground targets, more akin to the F-35.
“It’s not anything to lose a lot of sleep over,” General Wilsbach told the press earlier this month.
“Certainly, we’re watching them closely and seeing how they felt and how they operate them.”
Related: H-20: What we know about China’s stealth bomber
The J-20 is still evolving — both in terms of technology and capability
China has devoted considerable energy and resources to closing the air-combat capability gap presented by the F-22, incorporating new systems like thrust-vector control into the latest iterations of the aircraft to make it a more dynamic dogfighter. Recently, the J-20 has been leveraged in exercises that emphasize this air-to-air role, as China sees the fighter as its primary means of countering American stealth jets like the F-22 and F-35.
“We’re seeing relatively professional flying and it’s still too early to tell exactly what they intend to do with [the J-20] – whether it’s going to be more like an F-35 that’s capable of doing many, many missions or more like an F-22 that is primarily an air superiority fighter that has an air-to-ground capability,” according to General Wilsbach.
The J-20’s air-to-air capabilities are bolstered by a growing array of weapon systems, and in particular, by the PL-15 long-range air-to-air missile. The PL-15 can achieve speeds above Mach 4 via its dual-pulsed solid-fuel rocket motor and is said to be able to engage aircraft, drones, and even cruise missiles at ranges as far as 120 miles.
Of course, actually hitting an airborne target from those ranges is no small undertaking. In order to keep tabs on fast-moving targets while en route, the PL-15 leverages a mid-course two-way datalink to bolster its miniature active electronically scanned array radar seeker with updates from nearby Command & Control aircraft like China’s Shaanxi KJ-500.
“Some of their very long-range air-to-air missiles are aided by that KJ-500. Being able to interrupt that kill chain is something that interests me greatly.”
Read more from Sandboxx News
- How one Serbian commander proved stealth is not invisibility
- Fighter Comparison: Russia’s stealth fleet ranks 11th in the world
- India tests its own stealth combat drone in an effort to boost its defense industry
- Everything we know about the Air Force’s new drone stealth bomber effort
- Could a stealth makeover save the A-10? How to drag the Warthog into the future
Military espionage has existed for centuries. Countries have regularly stolen military technology from one another. If you think USA has never done this, you are extremely naive.
Since the end of WWII and with the exception of an handful of designs bought or copied from the UK (not exactly an enemy) and then replicated (X-1, wing design, for instance, that allowed americans to beat everyone else on the sound barrier), the only espionage the US has used was to know how exactly the enemy weapons performed. The US never incorporated any enemy designs into their own because they were (and are) inferior.
The fact of the matter is this: The NSA is so advanced in its technological surveillance, that only a few will ever know what technology has been incorporated from foreign adversaries. I think for the majority of systems, you are right. However, I wouldn’t discount what the NSA is capable of… and the recent effort to bring US Hypersonic missiles technology on par with recent Russian and Chinese technological advances comes to mind as an area that would seem like low lying fruit for the NSA.
Oh the games our countries play… if we only put the same amount of effort into building world peace.
What the Air Force actually said was-
We were cruising along looking for a gas station, like we have to do evety hour or so, and the chinese jets came up from behind us, slowed way down, waved at us, and sped off. We were saving our burner time, so we had no chance of keeping up with them. Since we are all jabbed, we are G limited to 3. They seemed nice enough! Since it’s not approved by the fearless leader, no one had any ordnance anyway!
As a citizen for all 81 years of my life; having lived under 16 different Presidents; having served my country in the Marine Air Wing (1965 – 1970); and practiced law for four decades , I read the above comments and am amazed at the total stupidity and lack of intelligent ideas and thought on both extremes of the present political spectrum. Wake up Americans and start some real discussions with true analysis of the issues that guild us as citizens of our country. If this extreme division continues, it will destroy America, and then, we won’t worry about whose jet goes faster or is invisible.
It’s easier for people to believe in what they think even if they know it to not be true, in a simple sense if that lie benefits themselves they tend to repeat it to find followers.. really sad . Hey. Thanks for all that you have done for our country.
Agreed WAKE UP AMERICAN’S!!!!!….
Stealth is a lucrative buzz word employed by the MIC, namely Lockheed Martin. Drones are the very near future with more capabilities with every iteration. Why are we building planes that cost $50 million each to build and cost an equal amount a year to maintain? A rhetorical question as we all know why.
America’s biggest strength is also it’s biggest weakness, the freedom of people living here especially foreigners. Not only should they not be involved in programs like that but should be much more closely watched. No f way China would allow some American to work on top military programs. Anyway this is how it’s paid off, by allowing enemies to jump ahead right behind us on technology we earned the hard way over decades by them simply stealing it.
Another trumpian blaming Immigrants For the stolen tech
May be Chinese were too darn good in espionage and the higher ups in Pentagon were too drunk to stop it
Migrants didn’t do it
Lol
There must be “woke” arguments everywhere these days. They all start with ad hominem, and then move to unproven, speculation or straw man arguments. Sadly, it’s as if people forget, as soon as you throw out an insult, you lose the argument and prove not only your character, but your knowledge.
Actually there are and have been immigrants who do spy, but there are also Americans as well.
In a recent article about the Red Chinese Secret Police they set up 63 stations over seas and ome was in New York, they are pressuring Chinese immigrants here to cooperate or their families could go to prison back over there , so to say immigrants do not spy is foolish .
What a jackass. We have foreign nationals sitting in prison for espionage and he wants this Georgejackassnoclass has to find some way to let his TDS creep in.
Democratic idiot!! Crawl back in your hole that you came from. The left is killing this country one day at a time!!
Stop the name calling and insults
Well… In the specific case of the F-35 / J20 may have been something else… The early (and defective) plans for the F35 may have been purposefully leaked. That would explain why the J20 is such an unbalanced aircraft. No fighter should have the need to place such big canards in the front, much less a stealth fighter (it loses part of its stealth due to it). Notice how neither the F35 and F22 (the 2 only real stealth fighters in operation in the world) don’t have them and even the rare cases where fighter have canards (European Typhoon, for instance) they are very small (and the typhoon is not stealth), even the ailing russian SU-57 “stealth” fighter has them not. Something definitely did not go well in that copy-pasting of the chinese…
But… Indeed there were migrants to be blamed on other case. Why did China landed on Mars on first attempt when even Russia (who’s been in space decades more than the chinese) failed all the attempts? Because a preeminent chinese born scientist, working for NASA, stole the trajectory data of the americans and fled to China (where they probably payed him a fortune for that): Rongxing Li.
True there is another case of a chinese scientist the US deported to China due to anti-chinese stance after he helped co-found NASA. And that scientist became a great help to China building its own space program: Qian Xuesen.
Which begs the question: In case of doubt is it worth to accept them (migrants, particularly of enemy countries) into top positions and with access to sensitive technology until, at least, 3 generations go by?
Woke “”. Sounds like we have lyrics being sung in someone’s head while writing post . T M. Funny thing is I agree .
Another redneck cashing on anti-immigrant sentiment. If you had the brain to do what these immigrants are doing for these hi-tech companies, they wouldn’t be there.
Has nothing to do with brains! Has everything to do with corporate management greed, The quest to cheapify everything so management can get nore profits. And since the Unions have forced overhead through the roof, in order to support management greed and incompetence, the business illiterates lookfor the cheapest workers possible.
If we forced corporate management into equal pay for equal work, most office management would be at minimum wage. The actual, professional, hands on crews pretty much run themselves, and if the wage structure was corrected, we wouldn’t have the cheapification problem.
Before you go around blaming China and other immigrants let’s not forget that the US did/probably still does the same thing. Take world war 2 for example with the SWEPT WING TECHNOLOGY. How did you think the US got it? From stolen German tech; specifically the Mig; and let’s not forget the fact that the US then “invited” German scientist with led to the creation of nuclear bombs.
So the next time you want to go around points fingers remember that you have “…. Fingers pointing back at you” as the expression goes
Soooo, I see you are arguing that we should allow China to steal US secrets for their military to kill Americans in the future. Interesting.
Do we remember when Grumman helped the Chinese develop the Chinese J-8 fighter program? Or when Loral helped solve the Chinese Long March rocket booster problem? The biggest mistake we have make is thinking of China as something existing in our fantasy – that ancient exotic China that really never existed.
Or when clinton gave the chinese the ring laser gyro system, the F-117 stealth coatings, the amgen stealth sub prop technology, etc.
As long as we allow the fake news to flasely label politicians as leaders, with no oversight, and no recourse, instead of correctly identifying politicians as low level functionary office managers, and general factotems, we are stuck in this luftberry.
Wow. So you think that national defence projects like this are conducted without ANY internal security, huh? Or do you think that they DO have internal security, but that it’s so laughably lax and impotent, that a person who’s never received ANY spy training is going to routinely be able to defeat any and all security measures?
I mean, it sounds good; “Blame the immigrants!!” They’re both powerless AND a minority, so it’s easy to pick on them. But if you think about what you’re saying for more than 2 seconds, you come to realise that there isn’t much that these immigrants can do, even if they wanted to. Then we also have to consider that if even a single immigrant were to be able to penetrate every layer of security and conduct their espionage and even deliver the data to China, undetected, their activities wouldn’t be undetected for long (and bear in mind that with current security protocols, things like this could never happen). As soon as internal security detected a breach, it would be impossible for anyone else to compromise any further data. Once internal security flagged the breach as having been done by an immigrant, every single other immigrant would immediately find themselves under a microscope, making it impossible for any other immigrants to breach security. It’s not an efficient method for gaining intelligence.
Again, if you think about these things for more than 2 seconds, you realise how specious a notion it is, to blame immigrants for security breaches, especially in light of the hacks suffered by numerous U.S. government departments by state actors.
But then again, if you’re spouting rhetoric like “Blame the immigrants,” thinking probably isn’t a strong point, nor a priority.
Too late, seems we let an Asian immigrant design the YF23:
Dr. Yu-Ping Liu
https://airandspace.si.edu/support/wall-of-honor/dr-yu-ping-liu
Oops!!!
“First stealth fighter born outside of the U.S.” In a pig’s eye. Plenty of designs stolen from the U.S. F-22 and F-35 programs (shame on us). China still can’t manufacture a decent jet engine and depends on Russia for most of that.
As compared to what? The F-35 clunker engine that is burner time limited to a minute and a half? We need to hold the military industrial complex accountable. With the gazillions in profits they make, the USG should tell them – show us what you’ve got- instead of using taxpayer dollars for 27 verses of whistling dixie before a semi working prototype shows up.
So True !!! I read an article saying they had over 100 Chinese working with Q Clearance that eventually when back to The CCP with everything we taught them and All they could steal !!! This happened from 1987 – 2012 !!! All in the fields from nanotech to Atomic !!! And you tell me the Higher ups didn’t know this was going on and just let them go !!! SMFH
Yes and who’s to blame for that stupid screw up?? Just like nasty Nancy’s boy sleeping with that spy and nothing year happen to him!!! It’s just sickening who these people (democrats) do the creap they do and get away with it???
Your an idiot bud.
*you’re
And Reagan’s SDI, Star War, initiative was such a success. He and Chaney, Mr Halliburton, wasted sooo much of our money. That waste equals a Hugh amount of money for Chaney, it was such a failure that when testing the system could or even shot down a C172. The solution by Chaney? Stop testing and start production. Yep, repugs are the master of deception.
Boy you have to go back decades? Let’s start with weapons development. first off you have no idea of what we actually have or we developed, except from your reliable and trusted Demo-Nazi-Party , news Sources, who donot know their own head from a whole in the ground.
As far as SDI, let’s start with 1st gen Patriot system
And 2 nd, and 3rd etc.
Look at Isreal’s shield, which is a working model of SDI.
Israeli’s shield is a working model of SDI???
Dude, do you actually KNOW what SDI is/ was? Are you aware that it involved Hydrogen-Flouride-Laser armed satellites, powered by space-nuclear reactors, to shoot down nukes?
I don’t think Israel has that kind of militarised satellite infrastructure…
The relaxed help of Clinton admin or so on trade had helped Chinese technologies a lot. They imported the know-how technologies and buy machineries to compete under the nose of US. They sent exchange students to study in the US, and recruited chinese professors and scientists into tech spies. Now, they can launch a 1,000 missiles all at once to US.
👍. All said is true!
中国是个热爱和平的国家，并不会攻击别人，我们新中国成立以来打的都是自卫战斗，从来不会干涉别的国家主权，也不会霸权主义，再说了，经济全球化后美国欠中国太多外债了，你们去了解一下
nixon opened china you dolts. its ridiculous that you think this only started with clinton, just because you are so stupidly hateful of libs and idiotically incapable of applying any of your own criticisms you fakely leverage against your political opposition to yourself and your own side. its hypocrisy at its finest, and i’m sure your a christian fundie too.
The higher ups don’t care about anything but corporate management profits, bonuses, and greed. We need to return to designed in the USA, fabricated in the USA, supplied in the USA, made in the USA.
All I know is we all I know is that we can’t forget Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor was Japan, not China dummy.
I think he is talking about a sneak attack. Lighten up!!
Blues Brothers!!!
Chinese are notorious for copying products and ideas, they are not innovators but imitators and not necessarily make it better. Secondly, it’s not the machine but the man flying the plane which brings superiority to the air.
We patriots should be VERY concerned that the fbi is our counterintelligence unit. Their treasonous actions in the past few years is abominable, and I don’t trust the fbi to do anything good for our country. The fbi needs to be dismantled, and any of their agents found guilty of treason need to be publically executed.
In the old days ( up to WWll ) if you were found gilty of high treason yoj were executed. Since then it is prison time. I agree it should be death for high treason.
Wonder if all our alphabet branches are still sharing Intel to protect us or if they’re back to; Knowledge is power and it’s all mine! Of course they can use these leaks to tell us; This is how the our secrets get out!
That’s why we don’t share anything among departments.
Wow, you realize how foolish you sound? The FBI does no good for this country and our communities? How about the anti child porn operations, the anti human trafficking operations? The foiled terror plots via counterterrorism task forces. Furthermore you’ve shown your lack of information and personal shortsightedness to dictate your very limited beliefs. And I’m wondering what the NSA and CIA are doing then? People like you really need to form your own opinions instead of mimicking others, (ironically alot like China’s copying of U.S. schematics). This being said, you have a right to voice your opinion especially in this country, but if that’s the route you want to take than do it, voice YOUR opinion. Enough regurgitating others beliefs with zero input from yourself.
Treason? What is your definition of treason? Doing their job and going after traitors who took highly classified documents and put them up for the highest bidder? I have no time for a draft dodger who maligns our military leadership and gold star parents.
You sir are not a patriot. When you mention Patriot you need to cleanse your mouth with Dawn dishwashing liquid because you have no earthly idea what a true patriot is. I promise you it has nothing to do with qannon or Trump you massive idiots. Quit spitting in the face of the people that gave their lives for this country they didn’t try to take it over they laid their lives down for it. Big difference big f****** difference.
Taiwan has been China’s territory since the Qing Dynasty, and we Chinese are in charge of our own territory. Why did you Americans come here to intervene?
Correction: Taiwan is Taiwanese territory and is governed by democratically elected Taiwanese people, not China.
My favorite question: Why are we putting our top secret information on computers with Internet connections? Back in the 60’s, everything was on paper, carried in briefcases of metal construction, handcuffed to the wrists of their carriers. It’s much less likely to get hacked, short of kidnapping or killing the carrier! I swear, the security of our nation is in the hands of infants that trust anyone with a smile and a nipple to suck on! You might as well publish blueprints on FB or send them through Telegram!
It’s so that Traitors like Clinton/Obama/Biden can have an excuse as to how they were Hacked by the Russians !
Yeah, because THEY’RE the ones telepathically declassifying sensitive documents and storing them in their private unsecured homes… Grow up.
TRUMP IS A TRAITOR.
The draft dodger in chief is definitely a traitor. Lock Him Up.
Fantastic writing giving beautiful and enlighting trends. Keep on.
One thing seldomly discussed with respect to the J-20 are it’s canards. Canards are notoriously non- stealthy. W
The chinese aircraft is nothing more than an F-22 & F-35 “knockoff “. And knockoffs are usually deficient and lack the sophistication regardless of tactics.
Although they prefer the f16 several
interviews suggest they would be happy to get either one.
I can’t understand why Ukrain rejects the use of the A10 with Russian use of columns of road and rail transports that are perfect targets for A10’s. Our military wants to mothball these indomitable planes. Don’t mothball these. Sell them and let other Allie’s use them for their wars, especially Ukrain. That Nuclear train would be lunch.
Solomon
Because basically its the US version of the SU-24. The SU-24 in some ways is better. Now the mig-29 and F16 used to be comparable but with updates and avionics is far better than a mig-29
The A-10 is not equal to the SU-24.
The SU-24 is a crappy knock off of the F-111.
Ukraine has not been offered the A-10, and the rejected it. I believe it is the Americans who have withheld the vehicle — because of escalation concerns, Ukraine’s lack of total air superiority, length of time to train Ukrainians, maintenance logistics, etc.
Unfortunately the a-10 has lived just about all its life in this day and age everything has to be fast. The warthog is a sophisticated highly productive aircraft but it just doesn’t cut the cheese on the speed. Most modern war consists of flying as fast as you possibly can into enemy lines fire and retreat. With so much sophisticated ground to air missiles you don’t want to be hanging around firing off bullets. Even the fastest of jet planes still get struck,so riding in something substantially slower than say a MIG would be a suicide run. The United States has offered the ATM to Ukraine and they turned it down as it is too slow.
A10 is formidable but it will not survive from s-300 more S-400. It can be useful against rebels with no shoulder fired or portable missile launchers. Many Phantoms fell from the sky of Vietnam because of surface to air missile. Phantom is a Mach 3 but it still go down from missile strike how much more an A-10? It’s a slow moving target and can not hide. Yes, its gutting gun is lethal but it won’t be able to fire against Chinese or Russian air defense. It is also a shirt range aircraft therefore operations is a sitting duck for fighters and medium range missiles. There is no room for an A-10 in a modern warfare and it will be costly for aircraft, ground support, and personnel.
I really hate the “A-10 is not survivable because it can’t evade radar” argument. There’s more to radar evasion than low observability. You can jam radar. You can fly under radar, with close air support. These same A-10’s are obsolete arguments would also mean helicopters are obsolete. Then why are we developing new helicopters for war zones if everything but stealth is not survivable? And the A-10 is designed to take much more damage than any helicopter.
Stealth has it’s uses, for sure. But even the US Navy questions if stealth is over-blown and have said their FA-xx program isn’t necessarily prioritizing stealth. There’s many that theorize that the future is electronic warfare and drone swarms, and that stealth could become obsolete.
If theirs no room for the A 10 in modern warfare then you must also feel the Infantry is obsolete in modern warfare?? Get real if so and read some more blogs on warfare but don’t pretend knowledge of real deal. The A 10 is the perfect and unrivaled Ground Support aircraft,that’s why it is built the way it is,totally different than the fighters of air to air combat because it’s not intended, it can but not for it! When you’re on the ground,pinned down by small arms and shoulder fired weapons, their is No Sound that makes you know and feel that its not your day to die than when you hear the A 10s distinct engines,low and slow with that Gau fucking up all that was pinning you down and their ancestors! The F anything is not worth a shit compared to A 10 in that! Because it’s not their application! So your military would come with no Ground Infantry, No A10(Ground support aircraft-not a fighter jet….learn differences in equipment and its application purposes)and with your slow ,outdated outlook no Angel of Death C130. I sir would not enlist in your military,Call of Duty,HALO,blogs wherever you received your expertise
Ground support Aircraft are not tasked with taking out Air Defense, that’s a Fighter jet and bomber task. A 10 has never been classified as Fighter Jet role. Learn somethings applications, role,and reason of design before trying to be little Call of Duty heroes
The A 10 can overload your pre diabetic body with enough Gau that those air defenses don’t mean dick to you anymore anyway
Your incorrect, the A10 is super manuverable and that is what evades misses, not “mach 3”. None of our planes can outrun a missed, you have to out manuver it which is done at high altitudes with fast fighters or on the deck with an A10. The Warthog is also very survivable and able to linger over the battlefield for extended periods of time at low speeds, something the F35/F22/F15,16,18….any of the other ground support dual role fighters can achieve. The A10 is something we have no replacement for and should be maintained.
A-10 was outmatched on Sam’s over 20 years ago from Russia. So all defending how great it is really has zero knowledge on threat capabilities. It is a great platform vs. low threat air defense period.
Jamming is a game of chess. I will leave it at that.
Love the A-10 for sure,but Ukraine doesn’t need such a perfect flying machine!!! So we can see some sold off in Arms Smuggling to our enemies,etc.,that’s all we need A 10s against Americans in Syria. No Ukraine wants an aircraft they’ve heard alot of hype over and a money fetching fighter that is worth more to sell to smugglers, other enemy countries to us that would pay highly to have to be able to study and reverse our technology. Its about re sale value is exactly why and also the fact of if/when as we always do end up fighting the people we arm ,train,etc., like this I.E.-Iraq,the Mujahideen of Afghanistan (now known as Taliban),Syrians. Then they look to that all so proven future and an F18 is much better to go at us with in air superiority campaign, the A 10 is the best Ground support ever built! I know 1st hand with experience in Iraq and Afghanistan but is not something to go against F1 8s etc., YES,y you are correct A 10 would be perfect for their situation now,yet they reject. Before disregarding what I said,ask yourself Why they would be pushing for not what’s needed.
Insanity my friends! Doing the same thing over and over Expecting different results. An amount of all weapons we have sent to Ukraine have made ways to arms smugglers and not the Ukraine war and some have been captured by Russian forces. Its not just the Ah well it was only 1 HIMARS the Russians got-whats one gonna do for them. Think people about the priceless value of Reverse Engineering to recreate,find ways to defeat,technology, etc., that we have put into Russian hands,future foes of Ukraine(tell me in a few years I was wrong-happend Everytime….like us putting that great guy Sadam Hussein in power,giving Mujahideen(Taliban)modern weapons to fight Russia) and who knows where these items end up once in Arms Smuggling hands. With all Chinese advancement in all fields of military against us wouldn’t be great to now purchase some of our weaponry to reverse engineer and easier defeat/spoof/circumnavigate to really gain that last advancement step to finally telling Biden to stop thinking he can tell them what to do and be able to launch a successful penetration into the United States. If what they do makes no sense compared to need and what they want instead is not really needed in their application but is something that would advance them in ways that are not what need…. Cmon Man
Why are supporting a totally Corrupt Country like Ukraine….
(other than Biden/Pelosi/Romney/Kerry’s families are eyeball deep in the Corruption ?)
Wasn’t trump there offering money to get political fodder for his failed election? What a loser.
Because deploying the A-10 would be considered an act of war by the U.S. against Russia, especially as it shredded mile after mile of Russian armor. The U.S., like most of our Western allies, is trying to throw support to Ukraine without crossing some line which still isn’t really defined. It may or may not be the best operating procedure, but it’s the one we’re operating under.
Very nice article Alex keep up the good work. I also wanted to ask if you could make one on the Gerald.R.Ford Super carrier since its deployment is today FINALLY.
For everyone defending the A-10. Yes, it’s an amazing CAS aircraft, but it was never designed to survive a modern contested airspace.
For example, and F-16 can get to the battle much quicker and can target enemy combatants faster and more accurately than any A-10. Plus consider this, whenever the A-10 takes damage, it needs to undergo inspections and maintenance to make sure it’s operable. F-16s and F-35s don’t operate low most of the time and are a lot less likely to incur any damage, which means less down time. The advantage of F-16s and F-35s is quicker time to target and more accurate fire meaning less friendly fire and less time trying to determine who to engage and who to support