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2011-01-23 China-Japan-Koreas

China's stealth fighter 'based on US technology'

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Posted by tipper 2011-01-23 14:24|| || Front Page|| [11130 views ] Top

#1 ....Okay - first, keep in mind one detail: the F-117 first flew in 1981, when I was still babysitting B-52s. The -117, in turn, is derived from the Have Blue demonstrator, which flew on 1 Dec 1976. That means that the stealth technology the Chinese are playing with is approaching forty years old. Impressive though it may be, no forty year-old technology (probably closer to forty five by the time it actually reaches squadron service) is not going to survive in 2015 style combat airspace. (The B-52 is to a certain extent SIXTY year old technology, but Miss Buffy's electronics are first-rate and she will never again have to penetrate enemy airspace under conditions of anything less than absolute US/Allied air superiority.) If anything, the J20 is probably semi-stealthy at best - the original radars on the F-15/16 would have a difficult time with it, but the current upgrades should be able to keep our guys even. The radars on the -22 and -35 will be able to see it and kill it. Keep in mind also that the Chinese will HAVE to have mastered several other technologies in order to make this beast stealthy, and it appears they haven't done that yet.

Second, it's my understanding that the -117 lost in Bosnia was killed through a number of things that probably couldn't be recreated, the reason they didn't bring down more. Short version (and again, this is my understanding, YMMV) is the the Serbs (with ~~Soviet~~ Russian help) discovered that one of their SAMs could get a very brief lock on the -117 just before/during bombs away. (Bistatic radar works in theory - it's just that AFAIK, nobody's ever built/deployed one, or if they have then certainly not in the numbers needed to cover an entire nation's airspace) and then they discovered that our people were launching -117s at pretty much the same time on the same headings every night. Once they got launch times and headings (from something as simple as somebody outside the fence with a compass and a watch, though there's a good possibility a French AF officer may have been passing them more detailed info) all they had to do was set up an ambush...at which point they threw everything they had at it and got the hit. It's not like we pulled the -117s from service after that; they kept flying missions and no more were lost. If it was that easy to do, they should have been dropping all over Bosnia.

It was, and still is, in a lot of people's interests to say, "Look, the SERBS were able to bring down a stealth fighter, what makes you think the (FILL IN THE BLANK) won't be able to do it?" This guy seems to be in that crowd. Is the J-20 something we need to look at carefully? Yes. Do we need to work on gear that can insure it doesn't become a threat? Yes. Is it going to end the USAF's ability to control the airspace over a battlefield? Not yet. Our politicians are much more likely to do far more damage than this aircraft will.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2011-01-23 15:51|| 2011-01-23 15:51|| Front Page Top

#2 Mike K.,
I agree with everything you said. The F-35 radar, which was retrofitted to the F-22 as an upgrade to the baseline, is far superior to anything else out there.

Another of the J-20's pedigree is the MIG I.42. The rear portion of the J-20 is particularly similar to the MiG I.42.

That being said, the US needs to keep an eye on this as our battle plans require absolute air superiority. I am not worried about the next ten years. I worry about the next thirty years. And the Chinese will be working on a competitor to the F-22 for at least that long.

The fact that China is a communist state and not a democracy is the biggest factor in our favor. The Chinese military is corrupt which cripples their effectiveness. Thank God that our enemies are evil.

Posted by Mike Ramsey 2011-01-23 16:40|| 2011-01-23 16:40|| Front Page Top

#3 What was it some Israeli said? "God was watching over us when he planted us in the middle of the Arabs. We would have lost if we had competent enemies." Something like that, anyway.

Mike K, that was a wonderful "How to think about the subject" post. Thank you.

Posted by trailing wife 2011-01-23 16:44|| 2011-01-23 16:44|| Front Page Top

#4 our battle plans require absolute air superiority

That's called air dominance. And way too expensive to justify in my mind, especially when compared to a drone that can maneuver constantly at +10G. And -10G. Humans can't keep up. The only thing in my mind that makes them interesting now is the idea that drones can't see them very well on radar. Yet. But that could change with a drone swarm, where every drone comes to the party with a radar, and instead of watching for reflections of its own radar, it instead watches for reflections of other drones' radars.

Posted by gorb 2011-01-23 20:31|| 2011-01-23 20:31|| Front Page Top

#5 Another fine example of a Rantburg U minicourse. Thanks very much, folks!

Posted by Alaska Paul 2011-01-23 21:21|| 2011-01-23 21:21|| Front Page Top

#6 Well you don't even have to see the stealth plane you just have to notice that something stopped reflecting from a particular bearing.

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2011-01-23 21:40|| 2011-01-23 21:40|| Front Page Top

#7 Fake story. China raided the fuck out of US defense contractors' data in the past 10 years. Plus their excellent network in America, and it's no wonder they produced a copy, they're experts at copying.

Posted by gromky 2011-01-23 22:13|| 2011-01-23 22:13|| Front Page Top

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