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> That's not how it works. The F35 will detect those pilots far sooner than they will detect it and shoot them down before they even see them. Combine a battle

> That's not how it works. The F35 will detect those pilots far sooner than they will detect it and shoot them down before they even see them. Combine a battle space with dozens of MALD decoys flying around drawing shots, those poor pilots would have never had a chance because the F-35 pilots would never give their enemy the chance to shoot at them in the first place. It matters when we're talking about full scale war between major powers. For some context, the US alone built 85,000 planes at the height of WW2 in one year alone. Granted planes back then were much simpler, but industrial processes have significantly improved. It's reasonable to say that the Chinese could produce 10,000+ 3rd or 4th gen fighters per year. Even at ridiculous kill ratios of 100:1 for each F22 and F35 it's easy to see that the balance of power would be pretty tenuous there. If the US wants to decisively win, it needs to ensure surge production capacity of up to several thousand stealth fighters per year. Since the US let the INF lapse it will certainly build longer range cruise missiles. The entirety of mainland China will certainly be within range of those missiles from a variety of platforms within a few years if not sooner. Not overnight, but it can be done. Generals in every war for the last 150 years have been sure that technology would let them break the back of their opponents in record time. The reality is that in almost every case wars turn into long drawn out affairs that rarely go as well as one side had hoped before the conflict started.

onepointsixC 6y ago
> It's reasonable to say that the Chinese could produce 10,000+ 3rd or 4th gen fighters per year. No it isn't, and it wouldn't most certainly would not maintain any of that capability within a few months of a conflict. I'm sorry but this line of thinking is simply out of date. The proof is in the pudding: the Chinese themselves are not massing loads of cheap platforms, they're throwing everything into the J-20, putting an enormous amount of effort into fewer more expensive platforms. Just look at their navy. They have cheap catamarans by the dozens. Instead of building hundreds or thousands of those, they're putting serious investments into building large surface vessels which attempt to match America Burke class destroyers. You seem to be under the impression that if, say China has 10,000 jets to 1,000 American jets where the American jets enjoy a 10:1 advantage that they would at a stalemate. That's just not true. The CCP watched the first Gulf War with horror as they saw technologically superior American forces wipe out division after division of war veteran Iraqi troops. Their doctrine then was one similar to Iraq, relying on larger less sophisticated forces. The CCP's since trillions of dollars in investments in matching American capability is their assessment of that previous doctrine.

onepointsixC 6y ago

> It's reasonable to say that the Chinese could produce 10,000+ 3rd or 4th gen fighters per year. No it isn't, and it wouldn't most certainly would not maintain any of that capability within a few months of a conflict. I'm sorry but this line of thinking is simply out of date. The proof is in the pudding: the Chinese themselves are not massing loads of cheap platforms, they're throwing everything into the J-20, putting an enormous amount of effort into fewer more expensive platforms. Just look at their navy. They have cheap catamarans by the dozens. Instead of building hundreds or thousands of those, they're putting serious investments into building large surface vessels which attempt to match America Burke class destroyers. You seem to be under the impression that if, say China has 10,000 jets to 1,000 American jets where the American jets enjoy a 10:1 advantage that they would at a stalemate. That's just not true. The CCP watched the first Gulf War with horror as they saw technologically superior American forces wipe out division after division of war veteran Iraqi troops. Their doctrine then was one similar to Iraq, relying on larger less sophisticated forces. The CCP's since trillions of dollars in investments in matching American capability is their assessment of that previous doctrine.