"Beijing won't want to waste an opportunity to humiliate the US by operationally deploying a sixth-gen platform before the US," said analyst Malcom Davis. "Look for the J-36 in particular to enter service before the end of this decade."
The joint British, Italian and Japanese effort has been the subject of uncertainty in recent months after UK Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard refused to make a long term commitment to it on grounds that doing so could "prejudge" the outcome of a new strategic defense review, set to report in mid-2025.
The Sixth Domain is not defined by geography. It’s a new kind of conflict in which autonomy and networked systems allow thousand-dollar consumer electronics to destroy multi-million-dollar conventional weapons systems.
“The thing with the H-20 is when you actually look at the system design, it's probably nowhere near as good as US LO [low observable] platforms, particularly more advanced ones that we have coming down,” said a DoD intelligence official.
“No one wants the Chinese to become capable of designing and building their own jet engines,” said a retired NATO-nation intelligence officer who spoke to Breaking Defense.
America's Chinese "frenemies" are "not having a debate over the relevance of six-gen air dominance. And I can also tell you they're on track," said Air Combat Command head Gen. Mark Kelly.
China has long relied on Russian imports to power its jet aircraft. Now a Chinese bid for a Ukrainian engine maker could change that – with dire results for US air superiority.
Government can’t stop to update systems, so modernization has to happen without interruptions.
WASHINGTON: China is not ready to wage war far beyond the shores of Taiwan, but it is pressing hard to develop some advanced weapons and increasingly wants to project power beyond its shores with an increasingly capable military. Those are the fundamental conclusions of the Defense Intelligence Agency in a unique report with its roots […]
WASHINGTON: If you want to grow uneasy about the world, read the US-China Commission’s annual report to Congress. China, while it continues to enjoy robust economic growth, faces a major strategic challenge. Strategically, the biggest threat facing China right now — and the rest of the world given how integrated China is to the global economy […]
PENTAGON: I thought I could hear Air Force and allied F-35 pilots around the world smiling when the new Air Force Chief of Staff said today that comparing the F-35 to the Chinese J-20 “is almost an irrelevant comparison.” The F-35, said Gen. David Goldfein, is “about a family of systems and it’s about a network — that’s what […]