Chinese Aggressions

U.S. air force trains in vicinity of South China Sea
By Tim Kelly, Ben Blanchard

TOKYO/BEIJING -- U.S. Air Force B-52 bombers have carried out training in the vicinity of the South China Sea and the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, the Air Force said on Friday, in what a Chinese newspaper linked to China’s drills near Taiwan.
The U.S. Air Force said the B-52s took off from Andersen Air Force Base on the U.S. Pacific island of Guam and “transited to the vicinity of the South China Sea” on Tuesday.
“The B-52Hs conducted training and then transited to the vicinity of Okinawa to conduct training with USAF F-15C Strike Eagles, before returning to Guam,” it said.
“Continuous Bomber Presence (CBP) missions are intended to maintain the readiness of U.S. forces. The U.S. Pacific Command’s CBP missions, which have been routinely employed since March 2004, are in accordance with international law.”
An Air Force spokeswoman said: “This was a routine mission”.
The exercise was reported in Taiwanese media this week, which speculated it could have been a warning from the United States to China following China’s stepped-up military presence around Taiwan, the self-ruled island Beijing claims as its own.
Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Wu Qian was asked about the U.S. bombers at a news briefing on Thursday but would only say Chinese armed forces had the situation under control and would defend the country’s sovereignty, as always.
On Friday, the ministry referred Reuters to Wu’s previous statement, without elaborating.
China has been issuing increasingly strident warnings to Taiwan to toe the line and has been flying military aircraft around the island in what China calls “encirclement patrols”.
Beijing fears Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, wants to push for the island’s formal independence. 

Tsai says she wants to maintain the status quo and peace with China.
The widely read Chinese state-run tabloid the Global Times said in an editorial on Friday if the U.S. bombers were meant to send a message to Beijing about Taiwan it would not work.
“The U.S. cannot prevent the mainland exerting military pressure on Taiwan,” it said.
“Mainland military aircraft will fly closer and closer to Taiwan and in the end fly above the island,” the paper said.
“If the Taiwan authorities openly promote the ‘Taiwan independence’ policy and cut off all official contacts with the mainland, the mainland will deem Taiwan a hostile regime and has endless means to deal with it.”
Taiwan and the South China Sea are two major faultlines between Washington and Beijing.
China has been angered by U.S. “freedom of navigation” patrols in the disputed South China Sea, where China has reclaimed land for military bases, and by U.S. support for democratic Taiwan.
As part of China’s military modernization, its new aircraft carrier could soon begin sea trials, according to images on Chinese news portals this week of the vessel leaving its dock in the northern city of Dalian.
On Friday, the government warned shipping to keep away from an area off Dalian for a week, for what it called military activities, but gave no further explanation.

China Is Rushing Its Stealth Fighter into the Sky

The U.S. Air Force has not fully developed a plan to protect its tanker, ISR and command and control assets from Chinese air attacks.

 By Dave Majumdar

China’s first fifth-generation stealth fighter, the Chengdu J-20, has entered operational service with the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) in limited numbers.
While the new fighter is technically operational, the J-20 must still overcome technical hurdles before it enters service in large numbers.
According to CCTV—China’s state television network—the J-20 participated in exercises with other People’s Liberation Army (PLA) assets including ground, air, naval and rocketry forces.
However, the J-20 is only in service in very limited numbers because China is unable to mass-produce the aircraft’s indigenous WS-15 engines.
Indeed, most western analysts had believed the J-20 was powered by Russian-made Salyut AL-31FN motors, but sources told the South China Morning Post (SCMP) that was not the case for production aircraft.
“There are still a series of technical problems that need to be tackled [on the J-20], including the reliability of its WS-15 engines, [and the plane’s] control system, stealth coat and hull materials and infrared sensor,” a Chinese source close to the PLA told SCMP.
China made the decision to operationally deploy the J-20 despite its technical problems because of the threat posed the by Lockheed Martin F-35, according to the SCMP’s source.
Indeed, more of the stealth fighters are scheduled to join the PLAAF later this year.
“It’s urgent for China to show off its achievements as soon as possible,” the source said.
However, while Beijing is trying to rush the J-20 into service to counter the F-35, the Chinese machine is not likely to be a directly analogue to the American jet or its stablemate, the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor.
The J-20—which appears to be larger than Raptor—is more likely designed to attack the support elements that hold American air operations together such as tankers, AWACS and JSTARs radar planes.
Over the vast reaches of the Pacific, where fuel is at a premium, destroying a tanker could achieve the same result as shooting down an enemy fighter.
China is developing the ramjet-powered PL-15 that could have a range as great as 120 miles.
The PL-15 weapon has caused consternation within the top-ranks of the U.S. Air Force with Air Combat Command commander Gen. Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle citing the Chinese weapon as one of the pressing reasons for the United States to develop a next-generation replacement for the decades-old AIM-120 AMRAAM.
“How do we counter that and what are we going to do to continue to meet that threat?” Carlisle asked during a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in 2015.
Later, during an interview with Flightglobal, Carlisle said that countering the new Chinese missile was an “exceedingly high priority” for the U.S. Air Force.
“The PL-15 and the range of that missile, we’ve got to be able to out-stick that missile,” Carlisle said.
Indeed, the problem is not just that the PL-15 would out-range the AMRAAM, when coupled with the J-20, the Chinese could attack the tankers and ISR aircraft that would be the key enablers during any air campaign over the Pacific. 
A 2008 RAND briefing suggested that in order to sustain F-22 operations over Taiwan from Guam, the U.S. Air Force would need to launch three to four tanker sorties per hour to deliver 2.6 million gallons of fuel.
That’s a fact that has not likely escaped Beijing’s notice.
While there is not much concrete data available about the J-20, the aircraft appears to have been optimized to high-speeds, long-range, stealth and a heavy internal payload.
With a combination of reduced radar cross-section and high supersonic speed—armed with internally carried PL-15 missiles—it is possible that the J-20 could be used to threaten U.S. Air Force tankers and ISR assets in the Pacific theatre.
As pointed out in the 2008 RAND study—Chinese derivatives of the Su-27 Flanker all but annihilated U.S. tanker, ISR, maritime patrol and command and control aircraft during a simulation using long-range air-to-air missiles.
The U.S. Air Force has looked at dispersed basing and developing robust logical trains to supply those austere airstrips to counter China's A2/AD capabilities in the Pacific theatre.
However, the Air Force does not appear to have fully developed a plan to protect its tanker, ISR and command and control assets from Chinese air attacks. 
The only answer the service has to the problem is that those aircraft will have to be pulled back to safety outside the effective range of the Chinese threat.
However, that would also shorten the effective range of the Pentagon’s short-range tactical fighters—reducing their ability to strike deep inside Chinese territory.
Air Combat Command acknowledges the problem and is designing its forthcoming Penetrating Counter Air sixth-generation replacement for the F-22 to operate at extreme long ranges.
“That is a strategy others have advertised and we’re familiar with,” Col. Tom Coglitore, chief of Air Combat Command’s Air Superiority Core Function, told me last year.
“We’re analyzing what Chinese have indicated they would do and then we obviously have to come up with our own capability to make sure we can still conduct the mission and create the effects desired. So, we’re aware is the short answer and we will be prepared to counter it.”