With new operations on opposite sides of the world, Chinese military aircraft are showing off growing reach

Christopher Woody 6 hours ago (on April 28, 2022)

China is rapidly developing combat and transport aircraft to support longer-range military operations.

A flight to Europe by China’s Y-20 airlifter and regular patrols by J-20 fighters are milestones for those jets, officials say.

The new capabilities worry China’s neighbors, but China’s troops and hardware are largely untested in combat. (This reblogger’s note: All most advanced weapons are untested new ones as there has not been any war now that requires the use of such weapons in it.)

China’s military has rapidly built one of the world’s largest aviation forces, developing increasingly capable aircraft that the US Defense Department has warned are “gradually eroding” the US military’s advantage in the air.

In recent weeks, China’s premier fighter jets and strategically valuable airlifters have reached milestones that underscore Beijing’s increasing focus on and investment in military aviation.

In early April, six Y-20 cargo planes arrived in Belgrade to deliver what were believed to be Chinese-made HQ-22 surface-to-air missiles to Serbia’s military. The roughly 5,000-mile flight by what Chinese state media called “a record-breaking number” of Y-20s was seen as a demonstration of Beijing’s ambitions for global power projection. (This reblogger’s note: capabilities instead of ambition as China has no ambition for world hegemony. There has absolutely no evidence to prove China has any ambition for global power ambition.)

Days later, a top official with the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, the state-owned firm developing the J-20 fighter jet, said that J-20s are now conducting regular patrols over the East and South China seas, a sign of the advanced jet’s increasing reliability.

The developments are indications that China’s air force “is growing more confident in its ability to operate farther and farther from Chinese shores with newer and newer aircraft,” Timothy Heath, a senior international defense researcher at the RAND Corporation think tank, told Insider.

J-20 stealth fighter china

The AVIC official said the J-20s were routinely conducting alert patrols, which are mainly for surveillance, over the South China Sea and combat patrols, which require a higher level of readiness, over the East China Sea. The official said that had been made possible by the switch to a “Chinese heart” for the jets, a reference to domestically developed engines.

The J-20 was originally fitted with less powerful Russian-made engines. Some of the several dozen J-20s in service are now fitted with WS-10C engines, an upgraded version of an older Chinese-made engine, but China has struggled to develop the WS-15 engine specifically designed for fifth-generation aircraft like the J-20. The lack of engine power is expected to prevent the J-20 from adopting advanced weaponry and high-end operations. (This reblogger’s note: There is no evidence for such allegation of China’s lack of ability to develop advanced engines. China has struggled in developing WS10C and succeeded. China can also succeed in its struggle to develop WS-15.)

Chinese military officials have said the WS-15 would be finished by 2023 and would put the jet on par with the US’s F-22, but Heath said the upgrade shouldn’t be overstated, calling the WS-15 “at least a generation behind” the F-22’s engine. (This reblogger’s note: Heath has no data to prove his allegation.)

The WS-15 “has the usual Chinese problems of short maintenance schedules (This reblogger’s note: Common for new weapons. Do not forget both F-22 and F-35 have the problems of even shorter maintenance schedules. Due to maintenance requirements, in actual war, at most only one third of F-22s are combat ready), or just a short lifespan due to maintenance issues, and quality-control issues and general underperformance,” Heath told Insider. (This reblogger’s note: How short? Please provide the data. Heath has no data to support his speculation.)

Despite its shortcomings, the J-20 has left an impression on US commanders, who have noted that Chinese pilots are flying the J-20 “pretty well,” Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, the head of US Pacific Air Forces, said in March.

It is “still too early” to tell whether the J-20 will be used as a multi-role fighter like the F-35 or be focused on air-superiority like the F-22, but China is showing it can employ the jet effectively, Wilsbach said, referring to a recent encounter in which “we got relatively close to the J-20s with our F-35s in the East China Sea and were relatively impressed with command-and-control that was associated with the J-20s.”

As with China’s bomber flights around Taiwan, there is a propaganda aspect to the J-20 patrols. They are “a demonstration of Chinese military muscle” that is not just directed at the US, Heath said. “It’s primarily directed at China’s own people, as well as to Chinese neighbors in the South China Sea.” (This reblogger’s note: Judge by Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach’s impression, it’s primarily directed at the US instead of China’s own people or Chinese neighbors as J-10 and J-11 are enough for that purpose.)

Logistics and heavy lift

A Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force Y-20 transport aircraft

Like the J-20, the Y-20 has been operational for about a decade, and China has focused on developing the Y-20 fleet to support longer-range military operations.

Prior to the flight to Serbia, two Y-20s delivered more than 30 tons of supplies to Tonga after that country was devastated by a volcanic eruption and tsunami. The 6,000-mile flight was the longest known overseas mission for the Y-20, a former Chinese military instructor told the South China Morning Post.

In November, an aerial-refueling variant of the Y-20 took part in a military flight near Taiwan for the first time, demonstrating a capability considered essential to support longer-range and longer-duration flights by China’s fighters and bombers.

The expanding reach of Chinese military aircraft has been noticed across the Pacific, including in Australia, which US and Australian officials say faces a renewed threat of attack from Beijing. (This reblogger’s note: are the US and its ally so timid to feel threatened by Chinese warplances that are described by Heath as inferior to US ones?)

“If you look at those distances and how that’s been transported, it’s really captured the attention of folks in Canberra,” Patrick Cronin, Asia-Pacific Security chair at Hudson Institute think tank, said of the flight to Serbia.

Chinese Y-20 cargo planes delivering medical supplies to Wuhan

Y-20s delivering medical workers and medical supplies to Wuhan in February 2020. TPG/Getty Images

“This is exactly the kind of logistics and heavy lift that China’s building [and] that could use some of these facilities and access points that they’re putting money into,” Cronin said on a recent podcast, pointing a security deal recently signed by China and the Solomon Islands.

Long-distance flights to unfamiliar areas have training value but Chinese pilots already have experience conducting such operations in the older Russian-made Il-76 and Il-78 cargo planes that China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army, has used for decades, Heath said.

“The difference is they’re using the Y-20 more than the Il-76s and 78s, but it’s not a dramatic change,” Heath told Insider, adding that those missions “are really not designed to replicate” combat, with which most of China’s military does not have experience.

“I’m still not sure that the Chinese themselves know if they can deploy combat forces into a hostile country that is armed with the latest equipment, like surface-to-air missiles,” Heath said. “That’s a type of situation I just don’t see the PLA being well prepared to carry out at this point.” (This reblogger’s note: What is the need for China to deploy equipment in a hostile country since it seeks no world hegemony. In fact, China is now friendly to all nations in the world including the US. It is seeking win-win cooperation with the US. The US is hostile to China for fear of being replaced by China as world number 1 though China has no such ambition)

Source: Business Insider “With new operations on opposite sides of the world, Chinese military aircraft are showing off growing reach”

Note: This is Business Insider’s article I reblogged for readers’ information The article is full of misinformation. My comments have pointed out some of them for reader’s knowledge.