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Still buckled up. Good. We now continue with the explanation on why I believe that the will to fight against the United States by the senior military of all branches of the People's Liberation Army.
The pasting given to Iran has shocked the Chinese Army. They watched their air defenses get shredded almost as if they weren't there. They know they don't have a chance against Taiwan unless their air defenders can protect them from US and Taiwanese air assets. They already know that the PLAAF won't be able to do much to keep the USAF and US Navy away from them.
As to why, we need to look carefully at the two top aircraft that the PLAAF and PLAN are counting on to counter American stealth aircraft. The CCP has spent many billions of Yuan stealing and developing the technology that allowed them to build the J-20 Mighty Dragon and J-35 Gyrfalcon 'stealth' fighters to try and counter the F-22 and F-35 respectively.
The engines that the J-20 and the J-35 were designed for weren't, and still aren't, ready. The engines they are forced to use in the mean time aren't nearly as good.
Bear with me but the numbers are important. The J-20 was designed to use the WS-15 engine (180kN thrust). It is currently using the WS-10C (145kN). The J-35 was designed to use the WS-21 (115kN). It is currently using the WS-19 (90kN).
The F-22 is powered by two Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 afterburning turbofan engines. Each engine produces (156 kN) with and (116kN) without afterburner. The F-35 uses a single Pratt & Whitney F135 afterburning turbofan engine producing (191 kN) with and (125kN) without afterburner.
In aerial combat, thrust is life. More thrust means you can carry more fuel and still get off a carrier deck with a full load of weapons. Less thrust means you have to leave either fuel or weapons behind.
To make things worse for West Taiwan, the engines they are using require more fuel per flight hour at all speeds. This means they are already operating with reduced range and sometimes weapons reduced load.
Things get still worse for West Taiwan. The engines they are using require more maintenance. The F-22 has an engine life of 12,000 hours. The engine that WT is still waiting on only has an engine life of 1,500 hours. Furthermore, it takes four times the post flight engine inspection time. The numbers are similar for the F-35/J-35.
Don't expect things to improve much for WT over the next five years, if they survive that long. The reasons their engines don't measure up is because they simply can't manufacture the engine internals (blades, etc.) to the quality necessary to challenge the US.
Our next post will go into the why the PLAN stands little to no chance against the US Navy, Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, and Taiwan. And the WT military leadership knows this.
SpyNavy
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)