What happened to the Taiwan air force and air defenses? Will Japan enter the fray?
Sounds valid to me. Can’t expect six F-22s to take on three regiments of Flankers.
If’n it were me, however, I would put the F-22s forward to in the Straights and have something less advanced (F-16s, F-15s, or, if we’re really, really lucky, F-35s) orbiting the tankers as backstops...
German Tiger Tanks verus the US Sherman. We won. If you can’t win with superiority, go for volume.
Freeper Jeff Head wrote about this in “Dragon’s Fury.”
Did the include Chinese pilots getting sick because of tainted food?
I didn't go through the slide presentation, but from what little I read I the article, the whole scenario is unrealistic to the extreme. It doesn't take into account the intel that we would have as to China's buildup. There are things that they must do well in advance to pull off something like that; that would give us plenty of lead time to have at least 3 carrier groups - with all their hornets - in place, plus have all the bases in Korea and Japan built up and ready with tons of F16s and F15s. Heck, if this is in 2020, then we'll have the JSF available too. That's just off the top of my head. The writer obviously just wondered what a 6 v 72 dogfight would look like, and then dreamed up a ludicrous scenario to fit it that isn't based in reality beyond the fact that China has SU-27s. He obviously has absolutely no clue as to how air battles are run and all the assets that are brought to bear.Upon deeper reflection, he's equating Chinese pilots to USAF pilots when there is absolutely no comparison. The tactics each side employs are as different as night and day. As soon as we take down their command and control network with some well placed cruise missiles (something that would happen early) then the few flankers that did get airborne would be completely lost because they are highly GCI (Ground Controlled Intercept) dependent and require ground radar to chose and guide them to their targets.
Don't even get me started on the logistics and time required to launch and marshal 72 aircraft without the benefit of aerial refueling - something the Chinese have tried, but are no good at and don't have the tankers to support it.
I'd better stop or I'll go on all day.
NO surface to air missile protection?
Wouldn’t they have to see the Raptors in order to shoot them down? I thought the F-22 has a very low radar profile and other stealthy bits built into it. Stealth coupled with the ability to lock on to multiple target simultaneously and the ability to shoot from a distance makes a pretty formidable package.
From the little I've heard, this sounds like a reasonable assumption.
btt
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to be the first to advocate bringing an old standby back to restore the balance of power in the skies.
Short Range: AIM-2 Genie
The other solution would be to mount a W54 warhead into a modified AMRAAM. 50 pound nuclear warhead with a 1 kilton yield ... bye bye clustered fighters.
Their argument boils down to "The Chinese could put enough planes in the air to overwhelm the USAF." But there's a lot more to real-world fighting than a simple numbers game.
They mostly gloss over the huge disparity in pilot skill, pre-conflict intelligence (our side being ready for what they'll throw at us), early-conflict counter-measures (hard to take off from bombed-out runways, or find the enemy with no operational radar...) and the massive logistical processes needed to put and keep a large number of aircraft in the air. (We can refuel our birds in the air and keep them there, while the Chinese would have to land a lot. etc.)
The devil is always in the details, and the USAF has all the details on its side.
I have doubts about Rand’s ability to develop objective studies. Too often their research presents the politically expediant answers.