According to Binkov, US is not going for high end CCA because it wants "affordable mass" when it comes to CCA drones. Its interesting that as time goes on, China goes on for more and more sophisticated Aircrafts while US keeps degrading its planes to try to produce more numbers. China is going for high quality AWACS in KJ-500/700 and KJ-3000. While US basically gave up on a good large sized AWACS and wants more "mass" by going for a much smaller E-2.
Its clear US is losing its ability to compete with China on the cutting edge of Aircraft technology and still wants to maintain some semblence of a force by going for cheaper but more numerous planes.
Now the question is, if China can maintain both quality and quantity at the same time. If China can pursue its high end CCAs but can produce them by the thousands as US wants for its CCAs, then that will be the clear game changer.
(*ULWA = Unmanned Loyal Wingman Aircraft (无人僚机 per the official 9-3 commentary) for sake of ease of typing)
When one thought that Binkov is getting better with his China-focused/China-specific videos (referring to their GJ-X video not long ago)... but eh, nevermind.
Funnily enough, now the cope essentially evolves into:
"Muh stealth is no longer important, China hasn't figured this out"
- Yeah, I suppose Northrop Grumman, Boeing and Lockheed Martin haven't figured that out too with their B-21, F-47 and CCA Vectis respectively, huh?
Moreover, there's this:
"muh we Murica is going to overwhelm China's expensive sh1t with our cheap, affordable mass"
- Who would've thought that today will actually come? And, of course - Too many of them still didn't realize, let alone understand the fact that China of today and going forward is equally capable of mass-fielding both high-end UADFs and low-end ULWAs.
Furthermore, if anything: The distances at which China are expected to fight her future war(s) (i.e. right in her own front yard and up till the 2IC) are still much, much shorter than the US (i.e. having to cross the entire Pacific to fight China) and most of their allies - And this will remain true until China fights up to and beyond 2.5IC.
So truth to be told, for the case of ULWAs - China is actually much better suited and much more effective at fielding them than the US would, as China's UCAVs aren't going to require as much mid-air refueling assets than their American counterparts in order to bring them into the same theater of war.
Sure, the US has a much superior aerial refueling capability to utilize - But not so much if they can be worn down pretty rapidly in a full-scale, prolonged oceanic war (if not becoming turkey shoots for the PLAAF's and the PLAN's LR/XLR/ULRAAMs).
