China’s Naval Ambitions

choi

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New York Times, Jan. 2, 2010 (editorial).
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/02/opinion/02sun2.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=china%20carrier%20missile&st=cse

Quote:

"The Pentagon has a long history of hyping the Chinese threat to justify expensive weapons purchases, and sinking well-defended ships with ballistic missiles is notoriously hard.

"Cutting back purchases of the Navy’s DDG-1000 destroyer (with its deficient missile defense system) was a first step. A bigger one would be to reduce the Navy’s reliance on short-range manned strike aircraft like the F-18 and the F-35, in favor of the carrier-launched N-UCAS, a longer-range unmanned strike aircraft.

My comment:
(a) Zumwalt class destroyer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zumwalt_class_destroyer

Quote:

"On 31 July 2008 Vice Adm. Barry McCullough (deputy chief of naval operations for integration of resources and capabilities) and Allison Stiller (deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for ship programs) stated that 'the DDG 1000 cannot perform area air defense; specifically, it cannot successfully employ the Standard Missile-2 (SM-2), SM-3 or SM-6 and is incapable of conducting Ballistic Missile Defense.' * * * In view of recent intelligence that China is developing targetable anti-ship ballistic missiles based on the DF-21, this could be a fatal flaw.

(b) McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F/A-18_Hornet
(a supersonic, all-weather carrier-capable multirole fighter jet, designed to dogfight and attack ground targets (F/A for Fighter/Attack); has been criticized for its lack of range and payload; Introduction 1983; Range: 1,089 nmi (1,250 miles, 2,000 km) with only two AIM-9s)

nmi stands for nautical mile.

(c) Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning_II
(Introduction 2016; Range: 1,200 nmi (2,220 km) on internal fuel)

Compare
Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-22_Raptor
(Introduction 2005; Range: >1,600 nmi (1,840 mi, 2,960 km) with 2 external fuel tanks)
(d) N-UCAS, where N means US Navy and UCAS, Unmanned Combat Air System (the same as Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle, UCAV).
(e) Call me a doubter--more than a skeptic--of China. I simply do not like the fact that it lies all the time. Take JL 巨浪 missile for example. China's official media reported numerous times, since early this decade, about sucessful launches from submarines. Last year (2010), the annual report from US Department of Defense suggested not only was there no JL-2, but no JL-1, either. Ever since, China has not talked about the missile any more.

There are so many satellites over China. To hear China imagine and make up things like this is entirely disgusting.
(f) By the way, asymmetric warfare does not work.* See my next posting.

* China has contemplated asymmetric warefare against US--maybe against Taiwan also. The truth is: without its land-to-land missiles, China's threat of invading Taiwan is simply not credible. China has said that since 1949. Taiwan took it seriously only after (China developed and stationed those missiles across the straight. But Taiwan has countermeasures nowadays (Patriot missiles; radars; Taiwan's own similar missiles).


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