Posted on 08/13/2025 11:33:28 AM PDT by whyilovetexas111
While the U.S. F-35 and F-22 may be qualitatively superior, China’s ability to mass-produce its J-20 stealth fighter presents a grave quantitative threat. China’s “offset strategy with Chinese characteristics” focuses on overwhelming the limited number of American fifth-generation jets with a massive fleet of J-20s.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalsecurityjournal.org ...
so i guess whoever has the most drones wins ?
Our military is designed for risk averse operations against second tier or lower countries, not a real war with survival at stake. We won WWII with material and logistical overwhelm.
What previous off the shelf planes does the US have and ability to make more of that match the J20? Any? F15 ETC.?
During WW2 the United States leaned towards quantity over quality. The Sherman tank is an example of that. The Soviets did the same with their T-34 tank.
On the other hand, the Germans were all about quality. Their Panther tank was quite good. But not good enough, evidently. So came the big, expensive Tigers.
And we all know how that little squabble in Europe ended.
The Sherman was out armored and out gunned by later German tanks. But, we overwhelmed them with numbers.
May not be advisable to rely solely on technological superiority in war.
I get the argument that USA has too low of a strategic domestic production plant.
But, if Russia didn’t reveal to us what a fullscale war with Western Weapon systems looks like strategically a war in the pacific is a very different animal than a landwar in Asia.
Chinese plane?
Chinese drivers?
The jokes write themselves.
It’s called attrition.
I understand the argument, but quantity only matters if quality is good enough. The question that really matters is have we maintained sufficient radar and missile overmatch (including quantity of these missiles) that the J-20s never get close enough to engage.
Economics also come quickly into play. With a price of $110M (a google-based estimate) per plane, I don’t think CN can be throwing J-20s into a meat grinder for very long without having issues.
Isn’t our plan to use the stealth aircraft as spotters/controllers and direct drones/missiles to engage?
Our air power money would be better spent on lots and lots of relatively inexpensive tactical fighters instead of a few 75MM super-duper planes.
De-industrialization of the US was not just a consequence of market dynamics (though that did play a part), but was a policy direction that our elites embraced in the 90’s.
We’re seeing the fruits of that now, and Trump’s populist takeover of the Republican party was and is an important reaction. We’ve got a lot of wood to chop, but there’s still time to turn things around, IMHO.
Years and years ago, I read a SF short story addressing this very subject. (That was back when SF was written by sentient, non DEI, and science literate authors.)
Summary...yup, quantity over quality won.
No doubt, for now. The biggie has been fueling the fleet, which is historically all about logistics. Yet with the range and stealth of drones with satellite communications, that may change. Consider that one could plant semi-submerged drone platforms randomly across that Ocean, effectively a multi-target mine with 100 mile range. It doesn't take that much to sink a ship.
Compared to
~200 J-20’s in service.
Perhaps in 5 years when those numbers might be different and so the discussion might also be different, but today the question is why was this article written when the entire conclusion or point does not apply?
Our air power money would be better spent on lots and lots of relatively inexpensive tactical fighters instead of a few 75MM super-duper planes.
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The pilots wouldn’t like your opinion unless they were Japanese Kamikaze types.
I am reminded of an old joke.
I must warn you the Chinese have the bomb. Problem is, the button you press is on the inside.
“Our military is designed for risk averse operations against second tier or lower countries, not a real war with survival at stake. “
The F-35 and F-22 were designed to beat the best Russia and China could throw at us.
“why was this article written “
Clicks!
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