Friday, December 31, 2010

Happy New Year...

Stay safe, be well and keep your powder dry!

A real analysis of the J-20 vs. the F-35.


via Defense Tech. Read the whole thing if you haven't already.  The sizzle to this post? 


This list is not in any particular order of magnitude.  And I’m sure I’ve missed quite a few other key items.
The J-20 offers one item from this list (#7).  I’m not convinced that the PLAAF has any other items from this list, although China seems to be making some progress with #9.
It’s kind of fun to watch the world fixate on this one item (#7).  Then again, I still enjoy air shows, too.  Pugachev’s Cobra maneuver, for example.  Drives the crowd wild.  Relevance to modern combat?  Zero.
As for the F-35, it certainly has its problems, especially regarding the price tag.  But most, if not all, of the customers and partners are sophisticated enough to have a list that’s a lot more comprehensive than the one above.  And I’m sure the appearance of item #7  as a prototype in PLAAF markings affects exactly none of their thinking.


The EU, Communist China and US based technology.


From Alert 5 via France24.com...
The lifting of the embargo on all lethal weapons "could happen very quickly," a source close to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton told the paper.
It said that the embargo was considered a slap in the face for the world's second largest economic bloc as well as militarily ineffective by the EU as China increasingly builds its own weapons.
A confidential report presented to the last European Union summit that ended on December 17 described the embargo as "a major obstacle" to Europe-China security and foreign policy cooperation.
As a result "the EU should draw the practical conclusions and go ahead," the report said.
Read the whole thing but I wonder...Is this just a gateway to US tech?  With EU countries building parts of the F-35...with AirBus potentially building the next generation Air Force Tanker...with major US defense corporations having entities in Europe...

Does this mean that we (through the EU) will be selling a hostile power the very weapons that they will one day use against our own forces?


Craig Hooper on the F-35B & Allied Countries...


Read the whole thing here, but this is the paragraph that stood out to me...
The F-35B, if it ever arrives, would be a real help, serving as part of that indispensable inter-operable glue that holds America’s complex Pacific coalition together.  The airframe would help tie strategically important countries to the US for years and open avenues for future regional collaboration–in say, a more formal arrangement, or a Pacific NATO.  I mean, if you believe that melding together some sort of collaborative security coalition in Asia is important given the slowly-descending Bamboo Curtain, then standardizing aircraft is a big part of that picture.
So, if the F-35B does go away, America’s major Pacific allies will be left with, well, a brace of aircraft-less aircraft carriers.  And that, on the part of those who spent their treasure to buy F-35B-friendly platforms, is going to sting a bit.  Nobody likes to be left holding a few multi-billion dollar platforms that fail to provide the expected operational benefits.
As I said, read the rest.  I disagree with Hooper on just about every point.  He is in my opinion another big city liberal that happens to focus on military affairs.  In particular his excusing San Francisco for its vehement anti-military leanings while still pushing for military participation in civic events there is especially annoying.

And as usual, he reverts to the same tired F-35 bashing at the end of this article. 

But he is waking up to the idea that the F-35 is important, not only to the Marine Corps, but to Naval Forces world wide.

Maybe its too early to abandon hope. 

Hope that others will see the light like Mr. Hooper is beginning to.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

How does the Super Hornet cost savings look now?


Add this as another consequence of the discovery of the J-20.

How does the multi-year buy of Super Hornets look now?  Information Dissemination ran an article in which he quotes Stephen Trimble on the cost savings of buying the Super Hornet.
You don't want to pick up Stephen's math and run with it, because if you do, you'll realize the Navy could replace every Hornet in inventory with a Block II, add an extra squadron of Block IIs to all 11 carrier air wings, add an 11th Carrier Air Wing, and still save money by sticking with SHs and choosing not to buy the Joint Strike Fighter.

Is the Joint Strike Fighter really worth all the extra money? It better be, but I remain unconvinced. It is clear the low number from Boeing explains the large order of 124, compared to the original estimates of ~70 a few years ago.
Read the whole thing but something is readily apparent.  If the US Navy has any chance of projecting power into the near future, it must acquire F-35C's.

UPDATE!
It seems that "Air Power Australia" has an "assessment" of the J-20 out.  Read it here.  They take the view that the J-20 will sweep the skies of all enemies, causing allied pilots to have nightmares.  Let me be clear!  I want an increase in the buy of the F-35 so that we can maintain our air superiority in light of these emerging threats.

I might be in the minority, but I believe that the F-35 will give us the edge necessary to keep us in control of the skies for years to come.  As far as the F-18 is concerned?  Not quite as confident.  While I believe it would be competitive against most airplanes, the appearance of stealth fighters from threat countries is worrisome.

Below photo is from Stephen Trimble's DewLine blogspot.  Does this 'advanced' F/A-18 look like it will be good enough now?





Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Combined Arms Assault Exercise.

This must be at Ft. A.P. Hill...


Rebecca Grant on the F-35.


via Aviation Week...
The F-35 is a sorely needed modernization program that will fly the pants off anything out there (except the F-22). It won’t come cheap, but its capabilities will be second to none in the antiaccess environment emerging in areas such as the Western Pacific...
---Rebecca Grant, Director of the Mitchell Institute

G-Man at Information Dissemination has more pics.

Galrahn has an article on the J-20 and I concur.  Our intelligence services are either dropping the ball or too focused on the terrorist threat (I think the latter)....

Someone has got to re-orientate on the Chinese threat.  They might sell us stuff to buy at Wal-Mart but they're a peer competitor that we might cross swords with...and soon.