Russia signals nod to sale of S-400 anti-aircraft missile to China

A representative of Russia's arms enterprise Almaz-Antey revealed that China may be the first foreign buyer of its S-400 anti-aircraft missile. Meanwhile, the Russian government has given its approval for the weapon's export.

 

The missile has a range of 350-400km, a significant increase on the previous model S-300, with a range of a little over 100 km, said Du Wenlong, senior colonel and researcher at the PLA Academy of Military of Science.

 

With its existing Red Flag series anti-aircraft missiles, the addition of the S-400 will give China an anti-aircraft system that covers all ranges for the interception of one or multiple targets at a time, Du said.

 

The S-400 is capable of interceptions at all ranges and altitudes and can detonate the warhead of ian ncoming missile at a certain distance. They are also capable of detonating the remaining fuel in a target to destroy it without hitting it directly, according to the report.

India to Unveil First Warship to Deter Chinese Submarines

India will unveil its first home-built anti-submarine warship tomorrow in a move to deter China from conducting underwater patrols near its shores.

 

Defense Minister Arun Jaitley will commission the 3,300-ton INS Kamorta at the southeastern Vishakapatnam port. The move comes a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced the largest indigenously built guided-missile destroyer and vowed to bolster the country’s defenses so “no one dares to cast an evil glance at India.”

 

India is playing catch-up to China, which built 20 such warships in the past two years and sent a nuclear submarine to the Indian Ocean in December for a two-month anti-piracy patrol. The waters are home to shipping lanes carrying about 80 percent of the world’s seaborne oil, mostly headed to China and Japan.

 

“As China grows into a naval, maritime power, it will be more and more active in the Indian Ocean,” Taylor Fravel, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology who studies China’s ties with its neighbors, said by phone. “Of course, it will not be due to some hostility or targeted at India, but because of its economic interests in the Indian Ocean, as a lot of trade passes through. Such a presence will certainly raise questions in India, but it need not necessarily be a cause of major conflict.”

 

 

Warship Plans

 

India has lacked anti-submarine corvettes in its 135-warship fleet for more than a decade now, with the decommissioning of the last of the 10-ship Petya-class of 1960s-vintage Soviet corvettes in December 2003. It plans to build 42 more warships, including three more anti-submarine corvettes, over the next decade, according to Rear Admiral A.B. Singh, an Indian navy official.

 

About 90 percent of Kamorta’s components are local, with the hull developed by Steel Authority of India Ltd., medium-range guns by Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. and torpedo launchers by Larsen & Toubro Ltd, India’s largest engineering company. The ship is two years behind schedule, according to Commodore B.B. Nagpal, the navy’s principal director for naval design.

 

“It’s a beef up of the Indian Navy’s anti-submarine warfare capabilities against Chinese submarines,” Rear Admiral Raja Menon, a retired Indian official, said by phone, referring to the Kamorta, which is named after an Indian island that was a convict settlement in the 1800s.

 

Even so, he said, “Indian warship building is not comparable to an aggressively modernizing Chinese navy. There is no way we can match China’s efforts.”

 

China Surge

 

China has built 20 Jiangdao-class anti-submarine corvettes since February 2013, when it unveiled the first one. At least 10 more will join the Chinese naval service in the coming months, according to data from IHS Jane’s.

 

China’s Jiangdao-class anti-submarine ships are about half the size of the Kamorta and designed to operate in shallow water, said Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha, a retired Indian navy officer. The Indian ship can store helicopters on board and possesses surface warfare and air defense capabilities, he said.

Jaitley, who’s also India’s finance minister, eased rules for foreign investment in the nation’s defense sector and raised spending 12 percent in the current fiscal year to help modernize the armed forces.

 

China spent $188 billion on defense in 2013, about four times more than India, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

 

Energy Needs

 

China has at least 52 submarines in its fleet, including three nuclear-missile vessels and three operating on nuclear power, the U.S. Congressional Research Service said in July, citing Jane’s Fighting Ships 2013-2014 and previous editions. India has a fleet of 14 diesel-electric submarines and a Russian-origin nuclear-powered submarine, according to the Indian Navy.

 

Chinese warships voyaged to the Gulf of Aden for the first time to join anti-piracy patrols in December 2008, two months after India deployed its warships in that role, and have since maintained a presence there. About half of China’s oil imports pass through the Strait of Hormuz and three-quarters of Japan’s, according to data from the Observer Research Foundation.

 

China’s growth means its future energy needs can be met only by supplies from the Gulf region, Africa and North America, according to a 2010 study from the U.S. Defense Department. Such supply points will keep China reliant on maritime transport even as it seeks to develop pipelines to avoid sensitive sea routes such as the Strait of Malacca, it said.

 

China considers buying four Russian Amur-Class AIP submarines

China reportedly signed two military sale frameworks with Moscow, of which Russia will jointly build four Amur-Class AIP submarines with China and sell them to the country while China will buy 24 Su-35 fighters from Russia, reports Sina's military news portal.

 

It is the first major military procurement China has made with Russia in 10 years, said the report. China needs submarines to counter threats from India's fleet and build a fleet to resist America's influence, said the Voice of Russia, the Russian government's international radio broadcasting service. A manager for a Russian national defense export company said Moscow and Beijing have been negotiating over submarine technologies. China has not revealed how many submarines it wants to buy and has not scheduled to sign a supply contract.

 

It is natural for India and China to show interest in Russia's Amur-Class submarines, said a retired Russian Navy general named Sivkov. The submarine is superior to the export version of China's 877 submarine and China would want the Amur-Class vessel since India has them. The Russian submarine can also effectively fight against American submarines and destroy Los Angeles and Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines from long distances. Since it produces little noise underwater, American submarines cannot detect the its presence. The characteristic allow the submarine to make fire warning shots or destroy enemy ships effectively during real battles.

 

Although the Amur-Class submarine can attack multiple targets on land, it cannot carry an anti-guided missile system. China does not own any submarine-based anti-missile systems as of now.

 

India's defense ministry made emergency orders over concerns of the country's declining defense capabilities. India has skipped the bidding process and ordered two diesel-electric Amur-Class submarines 677 from Russia to enhance its sea combat capabilities.

 

Currently China owns 60-plus submarines while India has 14 with a leased Russian-made nuclear-powered submarine Nerpa since 2012. The vessel is superior to Chinese submarines since it produces far less noise, said Russian experts. He believes China will not wage a war against India now even though the Chinese fleet has greater combat power than India's. China considers its fleet as a force against America and does not feel threatened by India.

China conducts test flights for nine aircraft: Kanwa

To strengthen the fighting and power projection capabilities of its air force, China is currently testing nine different new types of aircraft, according to the Canada-based Kanwa Defense Review.
 

One of those aircraft is China's first fifth-generation stealth fighter, the J-20. Photos released on a Chinese military website indicate that the J-20 is a multirole fighter designed for both aerial combat and ground attack because of its longer and larger build than Russian fighters such as the Su-33 and Su-37. China is testing the avionic system of J-20 through attaching its radar to a Russian-built Tu-204 passenger plane.
 

Another four — the J-10B, J-11B, J-16 and J-15 — are fourth-generation fighters for China's air force and navy. Tactical bombers such as the JH-7A and JH-7B are being examined as well. The J-16 has already gone through test flights for three years. To shorten the process, Shenyang Aircraft Corporation has decided to modify the aircraft's weapon systems. After the J-20 and J-31 begin service, their the J-16's primary mission will be to provide close air support for ground forces.
 

The Y-20 medium transport and KJ-500 early warning aircraft are the last two military aircraft currently being tested in China. The KJ-500 is being tested by Xi'an Aircraft Industry Corporation at the Yanliang airport. Unlike its prodecessor, the KJ-200, the KJ-500 is designed based on the Y-9 cargo plane. The official name of this new early warning aircraft has not yet been confirmed in China

China - PLA Navy set to build 10 aircraft carriers

To create its first blue-water navy, China plans to construct a total of 10 domestic aircraft carriers according to the Kanwa Defense Review, a Chinese-language military magazine operated by Andrei Chang also known as Pinkov, a military analyst from Canada.

 

 

After Admiral Jonathan Greenert, the US chief of naval operations, visited China's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, a refitted Soviet-era carrier purchased from Ukraine, the blueprint of the nation's first domestic carrier is nearly complete, according to Kanwa. Greenert said China is speeding up the construction of its second aircraft carrier and even predicted the vessel will enter service in the near future.
 

Richard Fisher, a military expert from US thinktank the International Assessment and Strategy Center, said China may have between four and five aircraft carriers in active service by 2030. This number may eventually increase to 10 in the next few decades. Greenert said, however, that the gap between US and Chinese aircraft carriers is still large. While a US carrier is capable of launching and retrieving 100 aircraft simultaneously, a Chinese aircraft carrier can only operate 10.

Before the PLA Navy is able to put its aircraft carriers into action, a great deal of work has to be done, Greenert said, adding however that China has achieved much in a very short period of time. Kanwa reported that China has acquired blueprints for a Soviet-era nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, also from Ukraine.

 

 

Quoting from the Singapore-based Straits Times, the article said that China's first domestically built aircraft carrier will be able to carry 50 J-15B carrier-based fighters and other aircraft such as the K-8 or the Z-8 early warning helicopters. In the future, between 25 and 27 stealth fighters such as the J-20 or the J-31 may serve aboard the Chinese aircraft carriers to replace the J-15, the PLA's current carrier-based fighter.
 

The article said China has great ambitions to build a navy which is stronger than the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.

China says 2014 military budget to rise 12.2 percent

China will increase military spending by 12.2 percent this year to 808.23 billion yuan, the government said on Wednesday, partly to beef up coastal and air defences and to develop more high-tech weapons.
 

The government announced its spending plan for the 2.3 million-strong People's Liberation Army (PLA) at the opening of parliament's annual meeting. The increase builds on a nearly unbroken run of double-digit hikes in the defence budget for the past two decades.
 

"We will comprehensively enhance the revolutionary nature of the Chinese armed forces, further modernise them and upgrade their performance, and continue to raise their deterrence and combat capabilities in the information age," Premier Li Keqiang told the largely rubber-stamp legislature.
 

Li added that China would "strengthen research on national defence and the development of new- and high-technology weapons and equipment" and "enhance border, coastal and air defences".
 

China's military spending is now second only to that of the United States, allowing Beijing to create a modern force that is projecting power deep into the disputed waters of the East and South China Seas.

Much military spending takes place outside the budget, however, and many experts estimate real outlays are closer to $200 billion. The U.S. Defense Department's base budget for fiscal 2014 is $526.8 billion.

At a time when Washington has stepped up its military presence in the region as part of a strategic "pivot" toward Asia, China is building new submarines, surface ships and anti-ship ballistic missiles, and has tested emerging technology aimed at destroying missiles in mid-air.

It carried out the first test flight of a stealth fighter jet in 2011 and has put a refurbished aircraft carrier to sea.

Nevertheless, experts say it could be decades before China's military is a match for America's armed forces.

David Helvey, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, told a U.S. Senate committee hearing on Tuesday that the Pentagon was seeking to build "healthy" ties with China's military, but said Beijing needed to be more transparent about its armed forces buildup.

"We remain concerned about a lack of transparency regarding China's growing military and its increasingly assertive behaviour in the maritime domain," Helvey said.

China has repeatedly said the world has nothing to fear from its military spending, which it says is needed for legitimate defensive purposes.

Its neighbours, however, have become increasingly nervous about Beijing's expanding military, and the latest double-digit rise could reinforce disquiet in the region.

China and Japan have locked horns over uninhabited rocky islands each claims in the East China Sea.

Beijing also claims 90 percent of the 3.5 million sq km (1.35 million sq mile) South China Sea, which is believed to be rich in oil and gas. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan claim parts of those waters.

The United States last month said it was concerned that China's maritime claims in the South China Sea were an effort to gain creeping control of oceans in the Asia-Pacific region.

Work well underway on China's two new aircraft carriers: Military Parade

The Moscow-based Military Parade has revealed more details on China's mysterious indigenous aircraft carriers currently under construction in Dalian and Shanghai.

In an report on Feb. 28, the Russian website said that the first vessel — known as 001A and designed by the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation — is being built in Dalian in northeast China's Liaoning province and will be equipped with a steam catapult. The new carrier is expected to have a greater tonnage than China's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, which was originally a Soviet-era Admiral Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier purchased from Ukraine in 1998.

The second vessel — known as 002 — under construction at Jiangnan shipyard on Shanghai's Changxing island, will be designed as China's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the report said. The size of the 002 will be similar to the USS Kitty Hawk with a tonnage of 61,351, and will be 5% larger than the 001A.

Both vessels have been designed based on blueprints of the unfinished Soviet Ulyanovsk-class aircraft carrier, according to Military Parade. The 002 will be fitted with four steam catapults, while the 001A will only have two. The 001A is likely to be named after the northeastern province of Shandong, following in line with the Liaoning, which was also named after a Chinese province.

The Shandong aircraft carrier may begin its service with the PLA Navy as soon as 2018, the report said, adding that China plans to build a total four aircraft carriers. Once completed, the PLA Navy would be able to establish four carrier battle groups to expand its maritime influence in the South China Sea and Western Pacific.

China developing world's most accurate cruise missiles

China has begun developing the world's most accurate cruise missiles with the ability to hit targets in Japan as well as US military bases, according to a recent report published by the Washington-based Project 2049 Institute.

 

In the article titled China's Evolving Reconnaissance-Strike Capabilities, author Ian Easton claims that after many years of efforts, China has acquired a considerable amount of cruise missile systems, including the PLA Second Artillery Force's ground-launched Changjian-10 or Long Sword (CJ-10) land attack cruise missiles (LACMs), the PLA Navy's ground- and ship-launched Yingji-62 "Eagle Strike" anti-ship cruise missile, and the PLA Air Force's Yingji-63 and CJ-20 LACMs.

 

With up to 500 missiles deployed on 40-55 road-mobile, tri-canister launchers in the Second Artillery Force, China's strategic CJ-10 LACM may be of particular concern to US and Japanese defense planners, the report said, as the missile's range of over 1,500 kilometers can theoretically place all of Japan's main islands under threat.

 

The report added that the PLA Navy's 100 JH-7 fighter bombers and 30 H-6M maritime bombers are armed with anti-ship cruise missiles which also have a strike radius of more than 1,500km, while the PLA Air Force has a small number of H-6K bombers that could strike as far as the US territory of Guam.

 

The advanced missiles have significant tactical and strategic meaning, the report said, as cruise missiles are technologically challenging to defend against compared to ballistic missiles because they can strike from any angle and fly at low altitudes.

 

China would have a geographic advantage over the US if it engages in a military conflict with Taiwan or Japan, and its long-range missiles could strike American vessels and air bases before they would be able to project power into the region, the report added.

 

 

"Initially, the only theater ballistic missile in the PLA arsenal that could reach Japan was the medium-range Dongfeng-21C (DF-21C)," the report said, but according to Taiwanese intelligence officials the PLA has also begun deploying the DF-16, a new medium-range ballistic missile for "counter-intervention" missions.

 

According to the report, the US Department of Defense assessed that the PLA is developing intermediate-range ballistic missiles with ranges of up to 5,000 km, meaning they could eventually threaten Guam, the Marianas, Palau, northern Australia, Alaska and US bases in the Middle East. If the Chinese program is successful, even Hawaii and the west coast of the US could be threatened by ICBMs by the early-to-mid 2020s, the report said.

First mass production J-16 conducts test flight

China's first mass production J-16 fighter — with the serial number 1602 — conducted its first test flight recently, reports the Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Po, citing a photo revealed on a Chinese military enthusiast website.

 

 

The difference between the mass production J-16 and the prototype aircraft with the serial number 1601 is that the former does not have an airspeed tube. The number 0102 indicated on the engine intake of the 1602 also shows that the number of J-16s produced may be limited, the paper said. Meanwhile, it is possible that units of PLA Air Force or Navy Air Force may already be equipped with the some of the advanced fighters, designed based on the Chinese J-11, for operational tests.
 

After the Zhuhai Air Show in southern China's Guangdong province in 2012, a number of Western military analysts said that China has devoted massive resources to developing the precision attack capability of its air force. Unlike the J-11, which was mainly designed for aerial combat, the J-16 can now carry munitions and missiles for ground attack missions, Wen Wei Po said. The fighter is also capable of carrying more ground attack munitions than any other type of fighter in China.
 

In addition, the J-16 is also equipped with active electronically scanned array radar and a helmet mounted display and sight system. This new fighter-bomber is likely to fill a gap between China's fourth-generation fighter and fifth-generation stealth fighters in the future, the paper said

J-20 may have better ground attack capability than F-22

The J-20, China's prototype first fifth-generation stealth fighter, may have better ground attack capability than its US counterpart, a report from the Beijing Sina Military Network said after a photo of the newest version of the aircraft was released on the internet.

 
Judging from the photo of a J-20 with the serial number 2011, Sina Military Network said the electro-optical targeting system seen below the nose indicates that the fighter is designed mainly for ground attack. This is a similar design to American stealth fighters such as the F-22 and F-35. With stealth capability, the article said that J-20 can be a perfect bomber when used against a ground target.

 
Most missions carried out by American fighters such as the F-16 Falcon or F-15E Strike Eagle in Afghanistan and Iraq are against ground targets. The F-22 is also designed with the capability to attack ground targets with joint direct attack munitions and small diameter bombs. However, the F-22 may still be detected by enemy radar while tracking a moving ground target as its radar releases electromagnetic radiation.

 
After all 35 satellites of the second phase of China's Beidou Navigation System are sent into orbit, the J-20 will be able to launch precision attacks against ground targets like the F-22 as well, Sina Military Network said. Noting that the J-20 can carry four air-to-air missiles, the article also indicated that China is developing its own joint direct attack munitions and small diameter bombs for the stealth fighter.

 
The J-20 can carry a payload of up to 24 small diameter bombs compared to the F-22, which can carry about eight, Sina Military Network said. If the electro-optical targeting system can be used by fourth-generation fighters like the Su-30 and J-10, this would enhance the ground attack capability for these fighters from a longer distance, the report said.

 Concept art for the Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter.

Philippine President Vows To Rebuild Air Force by 2016

Philippine President Benigno Aquino vowed Monday to acquire fighter jets, air defense radar and other equipment within three years to bolster the country’s weak air force, amid a territorial dispute with China.

“I assure you that before I step down from office, our skies will be guarded by modern air assets,” he said in a speech during a visit at an air base in Clark, north of Manila. The speech was broadcast live on radio and television.

Among these are “lead-in fighters, long-range patrol aircraft, close-air-support aircraft,” as well as transport planes, attack- and multi-use helicopters, air defense radar and flight simulators.

He gave no details of the aircraft and equipment, nor the terms for their acquisition.

In January, an Aquino spokesman announced the government would buy 12 South Korean FA-50 fighter jets to be used for “training, interdiction and disaster response.”

The Philippines, a former US colony, retired the last of its US-designed F-5 fighters in 2005 and lacks air defense.

Aquino, whose six-year term ends in mid-2016, has set about modernizing the military in his first three years in office as tensions rise with China over overlapping territorial claims to islands and waters in the South China Sea.

The main focus was initially the navy with the acquisition of two Hamilton-class cutters decommissioned by the US Coast Guard.

The first of the two refurbished vessels became the Philippine Navy’s flagship in 2011, replacing a warship initially built for the US Navy in World War II.

The second cutter is set to arrive in the Philippines later this year.

Aquino said Monday he was committed to reversing the under-spending on military capability that he said had characterized the Philippines since the early 1990s.

“Over the past decades the air force had its wings broken and we relied on old and rickety planes and equipment,” he said.

Parliament has since authorized the defense department to spend 75 billion pesos (US $1.7 billion) on modernizing the military over the next five years, Aquino added.

This is on top the more than 19 billion pesos that it had spent over the past three years for this purpose.

Between 1992 and 2010, the Philippines spent just 33 billion pesos for military modernization, Aquino said.

US Trains Philippines On Drones Amid China Fears

US troops trained their Philippine counterparts how to use surveillance drones Friday, as Manila seeks to boost military ties with Washington and counter what it perceives as a rising security threat from China.

The naval exercises are part of annual training operations between the two defense partners, but they have come under closer scrutiny this year due to simmering tensions between Manila and Beijing over rival claims to the South China Sea.

At a naval base around 13 kilometers (eight miles) southwest of the capital Manila, US Navy SEALs taught Filipino soldiers how to use small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, launching one from a boat at sea. It circled the base and landed in the water.

US maritime civil affairs officer Jeremy Eden said these were the smaller “Puma” drones used only for surveillance and not the more lethal, armed versions employed in Afghanistan.

“They (the Filipinos) are very interested and highly motivated to learn and if they acquire the systems, they will use them effectively,” Eden said.

The drones would be useful for the poorlyequipped Philippine military, which faces both internal insurgencies and potential external threats, said Lt. Jojit Fiscar, a senior coordinator of the naval exercises.

“This would be a very good instrument to use. This unmanned aerial vehicle can monitor the actual movement of the targets,” he said.

US and Philippine troops also practiced marksmanship and piloting small rubber boats that are frequently used by naval commandos.

Military officials from both sides stressed that the exercises had nothing to do with China’s claim to the South China Sea.

But Philippine Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin reiterated Friday that the Philippines was looking to give the United States greater access to its military bases, saying this was needed to respond to China’s threats.

“At this point in time, we cannot stand alone. We need allies. If we don’t do this, we will be bullied by bigger powers, and that is what is happening now: There is China, sitting on our territory,” Gazmin said.

“What are we going to do? Wait till they get into our garage?”

On Thursday, he said the Philippines wanted to give the United States and also Japan greater access to its military bases.

President Benigno Aquino’s spokeswoman, Abigail Valte, said separately that any increased US presence would comply with the Philippine constitution.

She also said China should not object. “Whatever we do within our territory... is perfectly within our rights.”

China claims nearly all of the strategically vital South China Sea, even waters close to the shores of its smaller neighbors.

Tensions between Beijing and other claimants to the sea, particularly the Philippines and Vietnam, have escalated in recent years amid a series of Chinese political and military actions to assert its claims to the waters.

Philippines: Chinese Military In South China Sea Threatens Peace

The Philippines said Sunday that an increasing Chinese military and paramilitary presence in the disputed South China Sea was a threat to regional peace.

Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario made the statement in a press release issued at a regional security forum attended by his counterparts from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China.

“Del Rosario today expressed serious concern over the increasing militarisation of the South China Sea,” the statement said.

He said there was a “massive presence of Chinese military and paramilitary ships” at two groups of islets within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone called Scarborough Shoal and Second Thomas Shoal.

Del Rosario described the Chinese military presence at these islets as “threats to efforts to maintain maritime peace and stability in the region”.

Del Rosario said the Chinese actions violated a pact made in 2002 in which rival claimants to the sea pledged not to take any actions that may increase tensions.

The declaration on conduct signed by ASEAN nations and China also committed rival claimants to resolve their disputes “without resorting to the threat or use of force.”

“We reiterate our continued advocacy for a peaceful and rules-based settlement of disputes in accordance with universally recognised principles of international law,” Del Rosario said.

China claims nearly all of the strategically vital and potentially resource-rich South China Sea, even waters approaching the coasts of neighbouring countries.

ASEAN members the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia, as well as Taiwan, also have competing claims to parts of the sea.

The rivalries have for decades been a source of regional tension, with China and Vietnam fighting deadly battles for control of some islands in the sea.

Tensions have built in recent years with the Philippines, Vietnam and some other countries expressing concern at increasingly assertive Chinese military and diplomatic tactics to assert control of the sea.

Manila says China has effectively occupied Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground far closer to Philippine land than Chinese, for more than a year.

The Philippines says China has recently also deployed vessels to intimidate a tiny Philippine garrison on Second Thomas Shoal that has been stationed there since the mid 1990s.

India Prepares For Another Chinese Victory

The recent (April 15th) Chinese incursion inside Indian Kashmir has reminded Indian military leaders that despite over five years of brave talk and bold plans not much has actually been accomplished to rectify the shortage of access to the Indian side of the border. It was this lack of access that played a key role in the last border war with China (in 1962) which saw better prepared and supplied Chinese forces wearing down their brave but ill-supplied Indian opponents. Indians are waking up to the fact that a repeat of their 1962 defeat is in the making.

 

Over the last five years India has ordered roads built so that troops can reach the Chinese border in sufficient strength to stop a Chinese invasion. The roads have, for the most part, not been built. The problem is the Indian bureaucracy and its inability to get anything done quickly, or even on time. The military procurement bureaucracy is the best, or worst example of this. The military procurement bureaucracy takes decades to develop and produce locally made gear and often never delivers. Buying foreign equipment is almost as bad, with corruption and indecisiveness delaying, and sometimes halting selection and purchase of needed items. 

 

Despite the bureaucracy some progress has been made. Three years ago India quietly built and put into service an airfield for transports in the north (Uttarakhand) near their border with China. While the airfield can also be used to bring in urgently needed supplies for local civilians during those months when snow blocks the few roads, it is mainly there for military purposes in case China invades again. Uttarakhand is near Kashmir and a 38,000 square kilometer chunk of land that China seized after a brief war with India in 1962. This airfield and several similar projects along the Chinese border are all about growing fears of continued Chinese claims on Indian territory. India is alarmed at increasing strident Chinese insistence that is owns northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. This has led to an increased movement of Indian military forces to that remote area.

 

India has discovered that a buildup in these remote areas is easier said than done. Without new roads nothing else really makes much difference. Airfields require fuel and other supplies to be more than just another place where an aircraft can land (and not take off if it needs refueling). Moreover, the Indians found that they were far behind Chinese efforts. When they took a closer look three years ago, Indian staff officers discovered that China had improved its road network along most of their 4,000 kilometer common border. Indian military planners calculated that, as a result of this network, Chinese military units could move 400 kilometers a day on hard surfaced roads, while Indian units could only move half as fast, while suffering more vehicle damage because of the many unpaved roads. Moreover China had more roads right up to the border. Building more roads on the Indian side will take years, once the bureaucratic problems are overcome (which often takes a decade). The roads are essential to support Indian plans to build more airfields near the border and stationing modern fighters there. Military planners found, once the terrain was surveyed and calculations completed, that it would take a lot more time because of the need to build maintenance facilities, roads to move in fuel and supplies, and housing for military families.

 

All these border disputes have been around for centuries but became more immediate when India and China fought a short war, up in these mountains, in 1962. The Indians lost and are determined not to lose a rematch. But so far, the Indians have been falling farther behind China. This situation developed because India, decades ago, decided that one way to deal with a Chinese invasion was to make it difficult for them to move forward. Thus, for decades, the Indians built few roads on their side of the border. But that also made it more difficult for Indian forces to get into the disputed areas. This strategy suited the Indian inability to actually build roads in these sparsely inhabited areas.

 

The source of the current border tension goes back a century and heated up when China resumed its control over Tibet in the 1950s. From the end of the Chinese empire in 1912 up until 1949 Tibet had been independent. But when the communists took over China in 1949, they sought to reassert control over their "lost province" of Tibet. This began slowly, but once all of Tibet was under Chinese control in 1959, China once again had a border with India and there was immediately a disagreement about exactly where the border should be. That’s because, in 1914, the newly independent government of Tibet worked out a border (the McMahon line) with the British (who controlled India). China considers this border agreement illegal and wants 90,000 square kilometers back. India refused, especially since this would mean losing much of the state of Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India and some bits elsewhere in the area.

 

Putting more roads into places like Arunachal Pradesh (83,000 square kilometers and only a million people) and Uttarakhand (53,566 square kilometers and ten million people) will improve the economy, as well as military capabilities. This will be true of most of the border area. For decades local civilians along these borders have been asking for more roads and economic development, but were turned down because of the now discredited Indian strategy.  

 

All the roads won't change the fact that most of the border is mountains, the highest mountains (the Himalayas) in the world. So no matter how much you prepare for war, no one is going very far, very fast, when you have to deal with these mountains. As the Indians discovered, the Chinese persevered anyway and built roads and railroads anyway and now India has to quickly respond in kind or face a repeat of their 1962 defeat.

 

Despite the lack of roads India has moved several infantry divisions, several squadrons of Su-30 fighters, and six of the first eight squadrons of its new Akash air defense missile systems as close to the Chinese border as their existing road network will allow. Most of these initially went into Assam, just south of Arunachal Pradesh, until the road network is built up sufficiently to allow bases to be maintained closer to the border. It may be a decade or more before those roads are built, meaning China can seize Arunachal Pradesh anytime it wants and there’s not much India can do to stop it. 

 

Undeterred by that the Indian Army has asked for $3.5 billion in order to create three more brigades (two infantry and one armored) to defend the Chinese border. Actually, this new force is in addition to the new mountain corps (of 80,000 troops) nearing approval (at a cost of $11.5 billion). The mountain corps is to be complete in four years. The three proposed brigades would be ready in 4-5 years. By the end of the decade India will have spent nearly five billion dollars on new roads, rail lines, and air fields near the 4,057 kilometer long Chinese border. Spending the money is not the same as actually getting the roads and railroads actually built.

 

All this is another example of the old saying that amateurs (and politicians) talk tactics, while professionals talk logistics. China realized this first and has built 58,000 kilometers of roads to the Indian border, along with five airbases and several rail lines. Thus China can move thirty divisions to the border, which is three times more than India can get to its side of the frontier.

Chinese Revelations

For the first time China has published data on the exact size of its military services. The army has a personnel strength of 850,000, the navy has 235,000 and the air force 398,000 (including three airborne divisions, air defense units and the strategic missiles in the Second Artillery Force).

 

The Chinese also released the identification of the major army units assigned to each of the seven MACs (Military Area Command): Shenyang (16th, 39th and 40th Combined Corps), Beijing (27th, 38th and 65th Combined Corps), Lanzhou (21st and 47th Combined Corps), Jinan (20th, 26th and 54th Combined Corps), Nanjing (1st, 12th and 31st Combined Corps), Guangzhou (41st and 42nd Combined Corps) and Chengdu (13th and 14th Combined Corps).  Each Combined Corps contains two or more divisions plus independent brigades. In peacetime these units are used to back up the police in maintaining public order and standing ready to help when there is a natural disaster. Some units with better equipment and training are designated as available to quickly go to some border area to deal with an enemy threat. 

 

These revelations are part of a program to modernize the armed forces. Most of this information was already available via open sources and Internet chatter in China. There have been some similar public relations efforts. Over the last three years, without any fanfare, China has changed the names of its armed forces. Gone is the PLA (Peoples Liberation Army) prefix for the navy (PLAN) and air force (PLAAF). It's now just the Chinese Army, Chinese Navy, and Chinese Air Force. There are also the Marines of the Chinese Navy. These changes can be seen on patches worn by Chinese troops operating overseas. These badges show the symbol representing the service, the name in Chinese and also in English (the international language, especially in Asia).

 

Since there was no official announcement, there was no explanation for why the old PLA prefix was dropped. The PLA was the original Chinese Communist armed forces, founded in 1927 by the Chinese Communist Party. This force was initially known as the Chinese Red Army. After World War II the PLA name was formally adopted for all the communist armed forces.

 

Because of this Communist Party connection, and continuing Chinese efforts to merge with Taiwan (the last territory held by the non-communist groups that lost the civil war in 1948 and took refuge on Taiwan), it is believed the "Peoples Liberation" prefix was discarded to please the "democratic" (as opposed to "communist") Chinese on Taiwan, as well as all those non-communist neighbors.

 

For the last two decades China has been working to modernize its armed forces and eliminating petty (and ineffective) secrecy and name changes appears to be a minor, but important, part of that

China building Type 052D guided missile destroyers

Shanghai Shipbuilding Co. will soon complete construction of three Type 052D destroyers, with sea trials expected to be carried out within months, according to Chinese military news websites.

The launch of the three new guided missile destroyers is seen as a warning amid rising tension between China and its neighbors over disputed islands in the East China Sea and South China Sea, China's dwnews.com reported.

The 052D destroyer uses a flat-array radar similar to the Aegis system, a new vertical launching system (VLS), is powered by combustion turbine engines and has angled surfaces for stealth anti-radar features.

The report said the vessel is a new multifunction guided missile destroyer developed based on its predecessor, the Type 052C. The 052D has been dubbed the "Chinese Aegis," as it is believed to have similar capabilities to the U.S. Navy's Arleigh Burke-class destroyer.

In the West, the Aegis system is a distinct, brand-name phased-array system that allows multiple Aegis-capable warships to share tracking and targeting data.

The 052D is reportedly equipped with 64 new VLS for surface-to- air missiles, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles and anti-submarine missiles, as well as a new 130mm main gun and a new Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar system.

Its layout is similar to that of the 052C, but the superstructure slopes inward at a greater angle, providing superior stealth capability.

Judged by its major features, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military analyst, suggested that the new vessels will serve as the backbone of the the People's Liberation Army (PLA)'s naval combat fleet.

Every morning at 6am, more than two dozen of the world's leading submarine watchers, aviation experts, government specialists, imagery analysts, cryptanalysts, and linguists gather at the headquarters of the US Pacific Fleet in Hawaii. Their job is to probe the overnight intelligence reports to guide the activities and strategies of the six aircraft carrier groups, 180 ships, and 1500 aircraft that patrol the Pacific and Indian oceans.

The morning meetings are convened by the fleet's top intelligence officer, Captain James Fanell, and are supposed to cover activities emanating ''from Hollywood to Bollywood'', as the head of US Pacific Command, Admiral Samuel Locklear, likes to put it. But the group never takes long before zeroing in on the country driving the military and diplomatic ''pivot'' to Asia which was announced by President Barack Obama in Canberra in November 2011 and which now has support from almost every maritime nation in east and south-east Asia.

"They are nowhere near as effective as they think they are."

''Every day it's about China; it's about a China who's at the centre of virtually every activity and dispute in the maritime domain in the east Asian region,'' said Fanell, reading from prepared remarks at a US Naval Institute conference in San Diego on January 31.

Fanell spelled out in rare detail the reasons the United States is shifting 60 per cent of its naval assets to the Pacific, including a rotation of 2500 marines near Darwin.

He was blunt: The Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy is focused on war, and it is expanding into the ''blue waters'' explicitly to counter the US Pacific Fleet. ''My assessment is the PLA Navy has become a very capable fighting force.'' Some were shocked to hear Fanell detail the extent and intensity of China's carefully orchestrated maritime provocations, especially coming from an officer whose job may make him more of an expert on Beijing's naval manoeuvrings than anyone outside China. Others wondered whether the Pacific fleet was perhaps lobbying for a greater share of the US military budget or wider authority to act by magnifying the threat.

But the question on many minds in Washington , Beijing and Canberra, is: can China actually fight? And the person most anxious to learn the answer is China's new leader, Xi Jinping.

The 59-year-old President has stated clearly that the military is central to his vision for China. ''We must ensure there is unison between a prosperous country and strong military,'' he said in a pep talk to sailors on board a guided missile destroyer in December. But his ambition to have a strong, professional fighting force is greatly complicated by an even bigger question that has occupied every Communist Party leader since Mao uttered his famous dictum that ''political power grows out of the barrel of a gun''. Can Xi be sure that the PLA will always be loyal to the party, and specifically to him?

Xi may be able to build a military that is either modern and capable or loyal and political. But many in China believe he can't have both.

Xi has taken charge at a moment when China has been surprising the US and shocking neighbours with the speedy development of new hardware and the aggressive manner in which it has deployed them to support its expanding ambitions.

Top US intelligence analysts and generals have admitted being caught out by the 2011 flight-testing of China's new J-20 stealth fighter. They were dumbfounded by China's subsequent deployment of the East Wind 21D, the world's first anti-ship ballistic missile, dubbed the ''assassin's mace'' in China and ''the carrier killer'' in the West. China is on track to triple its fleet of maritime strike aircraft by 2020, according to the US Congressional Research Service.

China is simultaneously developing and producing seven types of submarine and surface warships. That's after a decade in which it quadrupled its number of modern submarines, including nuclear submarines designed to carry nuclear-armed ballistic missiles. It has massively expanded production of corvettes, frigates, amphibious ships, and destroyers. In September, it launched its first aircraft carrier.

The backstop for all these new platforms and capabilities is the PLA's strategic missile force, which possesses conventional ballistic missiles that can destroy satellites in space, as well as several hundred nuclear weapons.

The dizzying display of hard power is sending fear and awe throughout the Asia-Pacific region. But Xi, it seems, is unconvinced that all this hardware can be effectively deployed by an organisation designed for civil war and adapted as an internal security force.

High-ranking insiders say the Chinese military is rotten to the core; formal hierarchies are trumped by personal patronage, co-ordination is minimal, and corruption so pervasive that senior positions are sold to the highest bidders while weapons funding is siphoned into private pockets.

''Corruption has become extremely institutionalised and significant,'' says Tai Ming Cheung, director of the Institute on Global Conflict and Co-operation at the University of California/San Diego. ''It makes it much more difficult to develop, produce, and field the weapons systems required to achieve world-class power projection.''

It's not just corruption. Politics have always played a key role and the PLA retains a Soviet-style dual command structure. A powerful political department sits at the centre of the organisation, while political minders shadow commanders at every level of the enormous hierarchy. The PLA is one of the world's largest bureaucracies - and behaves accordingly. ''They have a meeting now for everything,'' says Nan Li, associate professor at the US Naval War College's China maritime studies institute.

Li says PLA military universities have even been reduced to printing textbooks that instruct commanders how to transcend the tyranny of committee-style decision-making. ''That shows how much the PLA has been defeated by - corroded by - peace,'' he says.

Xi's associates believe he harbours even more serious concerns. They note that Liu Yuan, the senior general who shocked the party and military establishment after warning in an internal speech that mafia-like knots of patronage and corruption were crippling the PLA, did so only after getting a nod from Xi. ''Only our own corruption can destroy us and cause our armed forces to be defeated without fighting,'' Liu warned in December 2011.

The two ambitious princelings, as the privileged sons of China's revolutionary leaders are known, have been friends since the late 1970s.

Another close friend of the Xi family says Xi is so appalled at the state of the PLA that he has focused his political capital on whipping it into better shape and probing to see which generals he can personally rely on. The family friend says Xi's relentless inspection program and calls for combat readiness are designed less to prepare for war than to filter out grossly incompetent, unwilling and disloyal generals: ''To sort the horses from the mules you need to walk them around the yard.''

Xi's associates point out that his first real job, as personal assistant to the secretary-general of the Central Military Commission, gave him a ringside seat for studying the art of accumulating power as demonstrated by one of the world's great strongmen, Deng Xiaoping. Deng tightened his ''grip on the gun'', as Communist Party insiders put it, in part by mobilising the military for an invasion of Vietnam in February 1979.

The lesson learned? ''Without the gun in your hand, who will obey you?'' as Xi's close family friend puts it. ''So the first thing Xi did after his rise was seize military control.''

That's where China's rapidly escalating territorial showdown with Japan, still the world's third largest economy, comes in. Claims that Xi has exploited or even orchestrated the brinkmanship with Japan might seem preposterous to outside observers, given that a miscalculation could lead to war. But the logic is compelling for those who have grown up near the centre of China's endless and unforgiving internal struggles.

But the spectre of war is not the only possible explanation for Xi's saber rattling and demands for combat readiness. For even as Japanese leaders and US officials were publicising their concerns about a region on the brink of naval conflict, it became clearer that Xi and his close military confidants remained squarely focused on domestic politics. Indeed, Liu Yuan counseled that war with Japan would be disastrous.

At the same time, another top-level document emerged: a speech in December by Xi, in which he gave thundering confirmation that the PLA's primary function was to defend the regime, not China. This was the lesson learned from the Soviet Union's collapse, he said. ''In the Soviet Union, where the military was depoliticised, separated from the party, and nationalised, the party was disarmed,'' Xi warned, according to an extract of his speech that was published by journalist Gao Yu and broadly corroborated by other sources.

Nobody in the vast Soviet Communist Party, Xi affirmed, ''was man enough to stand up and resist''.
There is little doubt the Communist Party has been sharpening its identity by defining itself against the West, fanning nationalist fervor, and promising a restoration of ancient grandeur. Xi thus has little choice but to keep pumping enormous resources into the war machine if he is to justify his party's continuing monopoly on power.

Ultimately, however, Xi's speech affirmed that the PLA's primary task was to defend the party against internal political threats. The recent drums of war may be a sign of weakness more than strength. China's provocations against Japan were ''evidence of profound domestic insecurity rather than rational policy'', says a Beijing diplomat who closely studies China's military machinations. ''It is the fact of party control that makes the PLA weak. Everything else - the corruption, the risk aversion, the hierarchy - is a symptom of that.''

The PLA is gaining the hardware but there are growing doubts about China's fighting capabilities in some sections of the Chinese military, foreign diplomatic corps, and US academia. They believe the PLA lacks the co-ordination, command structures, training and incentives to be a professional fighting force.

''Our assessment is they are nowhere near as effective as they think they are,'' a Beijing-based defence attache from a NATO country says. ''When Xi tells his troops to be ready for war, it's really an admission that they're in disarray,'' says the attache. ''He's saying, 'You guys are drunk, fat, and happy, siphoning off all the money into private accounts, and you need to get real'.''

China Calls It A Tank On Wheels

Four years ago China revealed an assault gun version of its ZBL 09 8x8 wheeled armored vehicle. This version has a small turret containing a 105mm gun, for providing direct fire support for troops. There was already an artillery version, carrying a 122mm howitzer in a larger turret. There are several other versions, and apparently more on the way.

 

The Chinese Army has been recently referring to this vehicle as a wheeled light tank. It’s unclear if this means a new doctrine about how the ZBL 09/105mm is to be used, or if the vehicle remains assigned to infantry support work with some extra training for shooting up other armored vehicles. The 105mm gun carried is not powerful enough to destroy most modern tanks, but could knock out most other armored vehicles. 

 

The basic ZBL 09 is a 21 ton vehicle that has a crew of three and carries seven passengers. The vehicle is 8 meters (25 feet) long, three meters (9.2 feet) wide and 2.1 meters (6.5 feet, to the hull roof) high. It's amphibious, and has a top water speed of 8 kilometers an hour. On roads, top speed is 100 kilometers an hour, and max road range on internal fuel is 800 kilometers. The infantry carrier version has a turret with a 30mm autocannon. There are also artillery versions carrying either a 105mm or 122mm howitzer.

 

The ZBL 09 entered service in 2009, and some combat brigades are being equipped with it, to operate somewhat like the American Stryker brigades. China has been developing new wheeled armored vehicles for over a decade. Until recently, these were all based on Russian designs. The ZBL 09, however, borrows more ideas from the West. Still, some of the more recent (five years ago) Russian type designs were interesting, and instructive.

 

Back then, for example, the 18 ton, 6x6 WMZ551A model was given a new turret. The vehicle has a crew of three and can carry nine more troops. Using technology and weapons obtained from Ukraine, the new vehicle has a 30mm autocannon, instead of 25mm. More importantly, the new turret has an improved fire control system (containing a laser range finder, and a vidcam that shows the vehicle commander what the gunner sees.) This is apparently related to earlier Chinese efforts to upgrade its BMP1 tracked infantry fighting vehicles, with BMP3 turrets from Russia. These also have the 30mm cannon. The main problem with all these upgrades was money. The government wanted Chinese-made weapons to be used, as they are cheaper, and supply is more assured. But the Chinese manufacturers didn't want to move up to the 30mm autocannon design just yet. Many Chinese generals believed that the Chinese 25mm autocannon was sufficient. All that has changed.

 

There was always agreement that an improved fire control system was a good thing. But there was not much space available inside a BMP. Some export models of the BMP3, when equipped with a thermal imager, had to mount some of that gear on the outside of the vehicle. There was also agreement that wheeled armored vehicles for the infantry might be a better investment.

 

The Chinese have been observing NATO success in Iraq with the Stryker and LAV wheeled combat vehicles. Chinese designers eventually concluded that the roomier internal layout of Western vehicles did serve a useful purpose, and the ZBL 09, and all the electronics installed in it, are an example of what the Chinese learned.

China approves funding for nuclear-powered ships

China has approved funding to develop core technologies for nuclear-powered ships amid speculation about Beijing's plans to build nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

China Shipbuilding Industry Corp, one of the two dominant shipbuilders in China, said that one of its research institutions has received State approval and funding to formally begin research on core technologies and safety for nuclear-powered ships, state-run China Daily reported today.

"Compared with ships that use conventional propulsion, nuclear-powered ships can travel farther and are more reliable, factors that make the ships a reasonable choice for polar expeditionary missions," Du Wenlong, a senior researcher at the People's Liberation Army's Academy of Military Science, told the Daily.

Many military followers link the announcement to widespread speculation that China may develop its own nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, the Daily said.

"I think the research will definitely pave the way for our nuclear-powered aircraft carrier," it quoted a micro-blogger who uses the name Shangoufu.

China launched its first conventional aircraft carrier last year which is still undergoing trials.

Du said he considers it possible that the Chinese navy's next carrier will be equipped with nuclear propulsion.

"China already has the technology and industrial capability to develop and build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier," he said.

"We already have nuclear-powered submarines, which require more sophisticated technologies and manufacturing capabilities, so developing a nuclear-powered carrier will not be difficult."

Li Jie, a professor at the PLA Naval Military Studies Research Institute, said it is "more likely" that China will install nuclear reactors on its next aircraft carrier.
"We have command over most of the essential technologies of building a nuclear-powered carrier," he said, adding that some technical problems still need to be resolved.

The US navy has all but one of the world's nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, with 10 in service after the USS Enterprise was deactivated in December.

The only operating aircraft carrier outside the US is France's Charles de Gaulle, also the first French nuclear-powered surface vessel.

China Trains To Surge

China has begun training its air force squadrons to carry out high intensity operations on airports or air bases with two runways and supporting multiple types of aircraft while doing so. This is a critical capability for “surge” operations, in which aircraft carry out the maximum number of sorties for a day or so. This is the kind of capability that gives Western air forces a big advantage.

To make this work Western air forces have the "maintainers" (of the aircraft) working 12 hour shifts. These well trained ground crews can turn a returning aircraft around in 15 minutes, complete with a new pilot, fuel, and weapons, plus a quick check for equipment problems. For example, an F-16 squadron has 12 aircraft and a unit of 120 maintainers, including 37 NCOs ("Crew Chiefs") who supervise and do a lot of the work. One American F-16 squadron used its 20 aircraft, forty pilots, and very energetic and will trained ground crews to fly 160 sorties in 12 hours. This was an exceptional performance and not representative of combat conditions, where many aircraft would come back with combat damage. This also points out the need to have more pilots than aircraft, as the pilots are more fragile than the aircraft they fly. 

The most capable of these maintenance personnel are from the U.S. Air National Guard. Unlike active duty maintainers, the National Guard airmen have three to four times the years working on the aircraft and have often worked on the same aircraft for 5-10 years. This gives the Guardsmen an edge, as they know the quirks and weak spots of individual aircraft. The maintainers become quite knowledgeable about individual aircraft, if only because hours of work go into checking out an aircraft that has completed a day of heavy operations. Dozens of maintenance panels have to be opened so that items and lubricants can be checked for problems. Every 300 hours a more thorough check is made, and during combat operations this usually means removing the engine to check even more components. Even seconds before an aircraft takes off, maintainers are rushing around the aircraft, running down checklists for access panels that must be closed and pins that must be removed. This final check includes visual inspection of bombs and missiles hanging off the aircraft and moveable parts that must be in the right position.

When a squadron goes into surge mode it can mean round the clock operations (as F-16s can operate day and night because of their night vision sensors) that can result in individual aircraft flying half a dozen or more sorties. The maintainers have to be particularly careful during a surge because missing a problem can result in a lost aircraft, or at least an aborted one as the pilot discovers something isn't working once the aircraft is airborne. A surge usually takes place after the squadron has moved to a base in a combat zone. In these situations the maintainers often sleep in tents near the air strip, meaning they have to sleep through takeoffs and the other noises of a wartime base (alarms going off for various emergencies and frequent small arms fire from a range that is always set up so the Air Force security troops can maintain their proficiency). If there's bad weather, you just work through it. This is the sort of thing China is now preparing for.

China has also been making strides in recruiting higher quality recruits to be maintainers and upgrading logistics systems so that the maintainers don’t run short of fuel, spare parts, and other essential supplies. China also has lots of modern aircraft that can surge and carry out the kind of surge efforts Western air forces train for and carry out in wartime. Most Western aircraft can fly three or more sorties per day for two or three days and one or two per day indefinitely, as long as the spare parts and ground crews hold out. Western air forces practice high sortie surge tactics far more than less affluent nations. China now has more money and they are spending it to move maintainers from several squadrons to a base and have them practice generating a lot of sorties quickly on dual runway airports. That’s how you win wars.