China identified more than a decade ago that transforming its air force’s capability in the area of air-to-air missiles was an important part of its military modernization. Efforts since then appear to have paid off, with experts forming a consensus that China’s air power is already capable of challenging that of the US in certain scenarios, in part thanks to indigenious missiles.
Chief airpower specialist at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Douglas Barrie, noted recently that some of the new weapons being introduced on Chinese aircraft are equal to Western equivalents. In the case of one missile, it has surpassed any other country’s capabilities.
The new weapons, including a long-range air-to-air missile, Barrie wrote earlier this year, have completely transformed the balance of power in the skies.
“For the notional Western combat aircraft pilot, there is no obvious respite to be found in attempting to avoid within visual range threat of the PL-10 by keeping to beyond visual range. In this environment also the PLAAF will be able to mount an increasingly credible challenge, and at engagement ranges against some targets that would previously have been considered safe. As one former U.S. Air Force tanker pilot drily noted to this author when discussing China’s yet-to-be-named, and yet-to-enter service, very long-range AAM, ‘That’s aimed right at me.’”
China’s advancements made in air power, which have been made alongside those of Russia, have not just caught the attention of the US, as Bloomberg reported this week.
“This shift isn’t just important for the US. India has watched with trepidation as Russia supplies Beijing – and Beijing supplies Pakistan – with more sophisticated weaponry…
According to Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, Russia’s potential approval for China to resell its jet engines to Pakistan was the most frequent topic of discussion at weekly meetings of the National Security Council when she was assistant secretary to the NSC Secretariat from 2003-2007. If Pakistan’s jets were equipped with the new radar and China’s PL-10 missiles, now available for export, India’s aging Russian MiGs would struggle to compete, she said.”
Some missiles China developed with Russia’s help may now be even better than original Russian versions, but Moscow is not particularly worried, according to some.
“They are certainly a growing power,” Vasily Kashin, a Moscow-based military aviation specialist was quoted as saying in the Bloomberg report. “But they are not omnipotent, and they are Russia’s partner.”
That is in line with recent analysis pushing back on skepticism of a Russia-China military alliance.
“As long as Russia sees the US as its chief rival and is focused primarily on Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and China looks towards the Asia-Pacific, it is quite likely that Beijing and Moscow will be able to manage their contradictions and maintain a fairly robust military partnership,” Yevgen Sautin wrote for the Party Watch Initiative, which publishes research drawing from Chinese-language publications. “Even without an explicit alliance, this makes both states more formidable competitors.”
Asia isn’t one and there’s little integration but much rivalry among many Asian nations.
Are you are so proud that US involved in almost every war since World War 2 as if skillful killers sent from God to start the massacre ?
OK noted
I don’t think so. It publishes articles for and against all powers.
Aww whining Indian Bitches at it again..!!
Si Thu Soe Moe The main problem with modern Chinese jets are that they use outdated Soviet engines! ~ The Chinese are a good 10 years behind us, it’ll be another 20-30 years before they catch us. Actually the F-22 & F-35 are already obsolete with the Aroura technology coming in the next decade. US secret jets are already pushing mach 6-7, and we also have the B-21 bomber coming online in the next few years. It’s a shame the Y-23 didn’t get it’s chance to go into production. Not as fast as the F-22 but could fly higher and farther. . .
Zoran Ilić
1. China invaded Vietnam in 1979 while USSR invaded Afgan in the same year.Dont restrict or limit ur own vision.
2. Israel has been deploying lots of US made weapons since 1970s. Its jets are better than neighbor countries. So it means that US has sold quality weapons to its clients while Russia has cheated its fans. LoL…
Zoran Ilić Wait until some other country has to fight a F-22 or F-35, can you say SPLASH. . .
1. How many souvereign countries did China, or Russia, invade in the past 2 decades under false pretence, like the US???
2. How many comparable generation planes did US fighters face while invading other countries to steal their industry, oil, land… NONE!!! The best they came upon was Mig-29 MK1 with 30km range of missiles, badly mantained with non working radars, the rest were Mig-21’s mostly, surely strong opposition to F-15’s, cut the crap IVth Reich!!
BEATEN??? Hahahaaaa… YOU STEAL/CLONE EVERYTHING!!! Even the plane in question being equiped with these new missiles was a STOLEN design, you ordered like 20 SU-27/30 as "first batch", and next batch of 100 to be paid and delivered in a separate deal, after receiving the first batch you canceled the other and all further batches, CLONED THE FIRST BATCH AND CLAIMED IT AS YOURS!!
So much about beating someone, and yes it’s engines ARE Soviet technology, but since you proved to be layman it isn’t a surprise you rant about something you don’t know, the PAK FA will be the first plain to have post Soviet engines!!
It is really the mouthpiece of the chinese propaganda…..whether call it asia times…or china times ….it is all the same
Have any of them downed 9 in a single fight that too by a single fighter??? Check record.
Since the world’s focus now shifts from Meditterranean basin to Asia-Pacific Basin everything will change once again Asian achievements in culture, science and technology will be given primacy and recognition. Asia is already old and has given a lot to the world and time to reclaim its glory.
Is Asia Times being the mouth piece of China’s mind conditioning! Would it be better to call it China Times.
You mean those Arabs…get real!
China reverse engineered many things. During the last decade of Cold War, the West kowtowed China as a balance to USSR and sold many advanced gadgets of the day. China also spied and got a lot of info from the US while the latter focused on Japan in 1990s. Check the records.
Modern Chinese fighters & pilots have shot down how many foreign jets?
US Military Jets have downed dozens of modern fighters over the past 2 decades!
Chinese pilots would be considered amatuers compared to their US rivals. . .
DPP politicians are good at painting beautiful picture for voters, as for making them happen it is always another story.
Sadly, even here, http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/China_to_Use_Soviet_Engine_to_Power_Its_First_Reusable_Space_Rocket_999.html, we Chinese just can not get away from being indebted to the white clan.
I mean [SOVIET TECHNOLOGY]? C’mon! We were shut off from the USSR in the very start of the 60’s. Kruschev pulled all of [Stalin’s promises] out of China never to be heard from again — ever. Dummy China. We should have sued for breach of contract instead of going about on empty stomachs to pay for the cost incurred in the Korean War.
In any case, if our engines are Soviet, can we, if such logic is the case, declare that America’s rocketry, jet fighter, and space and many other technology MUST, ALL, BE INDEBTED TO THE GERMAN NATION or to Nazi Germany?
What a rediculous conjecture. White clan are white clan I suppose. They just can’t bear the pain of being beaten in their own game.