Ask anything Thread (Air Force)
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
PiSigma
"the engineer"
This channel is terribad. Don't waste your time on it
Generally for entertainment, it is not the content we encourage here (as are any other youtube channels).
The videos simply are not interesting for people such as us that put more time into PLA watching and in general his videos are not worth watching for any type of insight or accurate evaluation of how the things are since his kind of head to head comparisons ignore almost all aspects of reality i.e. his way of comparing won't reflect reality. That being said I don't think the videos are as bad as often claimed here we are just not the audiance, I have seen way dumber takes here on SDF by some members sadly.
That's quite a claim. Please elaborate.
Practically whenever someone states SCMP/National interest etc. should count by itself. But I was also talking about some fanboys, though I won't name people the 50k ton battlecruiser comes to mind and some of the posts about 003 (e.g. it will be nuclear/launch before end of 2021 etc. while we have satellite imagery). Also overestimations about production numbers are really annoying, just taking maximum rate and extrapolating from that and so on.
SDF is unique among popular internet forums in the broad quality of its userbase. There are very few "fanboys" here - especially among the pro-China crowd. Certainly far fewer than you would find in a typical defense forum like BR and f-16.net. If there are any fanboys I've encountered it's among the pro-America crowd who believe in American invulnerability and the occasional Indian troll, but they are relatively few and the moderators ensure that they don't step too far out of line.
News to me. I've never seen any discussion here about a 50k ton battlecruiser. The closest I can remember is some submersible arsenal ship a prominent ailing naval designer once doodled.
A Q42021-Q12022 launch window is perfectly reasonable for 003. I would grant that 2021 is on the optimistic side, but it's a reasonable estimate and certainly nothing like claiming that 003 is nuclear-powered when we have credible rumours going back years that it would be conventionally powered.
Would you prefer underestimations? If so, you must be pretty satisfied because underestimating China is a religious stricture in the English-speaking world. It's a fact that observers in the Anglosphere consistently underestimate the PLA along every dimension - for example, I remember watching think tank panels where participants "debated" whether China would ever build an aircraft carrier, or whether it would even build ships larger than the Type 22. It was a perfectly respectable position to hold that the PLAN would be a somewhat larger IRGC navy.
China's monstrous shipbuilding capability is a fact, the number of warships it launched in the last few years attests to that. The new Bohai submarine yard has the capacity to build 20 SSNs simultaneously*, that's also just a fact. So skeptics should ask themselves whether what they're calling "overestimations" are really that.
*I want to pre-empt any pedantry about the 20 SSN statement along the lines of "but it would build SSBNs as well", etc. The Bohai shipyard can simultaneously construct x SSBNs and 20 - 4x SSNs for any x in {0, 1, 2, 3}.
I think bad is relative, while that channel clearly says stuff that is obvious to us, the number of military forces that the puppet covers and the amount of leg work needed for each military, when put together, is probably quite a bit of work.
And looking at some of the imagery and numbers that the puppet uses for its PLA videos, the awareness it possesses is better than average.
There are of course always some dubious applications of logic now and then (typically coming from a more US centric view of how certain hardware should function), and the videos are often made with clickbait titles for the purpose of seeking clicks... But let's be honest, there are a lot worse military oriented video makers out there, and the bulk of the puppet's understanding of PLA matters is fair for people who are not dedicated PLA watchers like us.
Now, whether places like this should be "impressed" by the analysis that they make, certainly not, because it's fairly pedestrian to us.
But at the same time, portraying obvious barn door information in an easily consumable video form is also an achievement itself.
What is the difference between J-11, J-15, and J-16? I understand that the J-15 is the naval version of the Flanker, but what about J-11 and J-16? I read the Chinese Flanker breakdown, but I'm still confused. Is the J-16 simply an upgrade from the J-11? Is the PLAAF focused on the J-16 for the foreseeable future?
Think of the J-11 as a F-15C equivalent and J-16 as a F-15E equivalent
The J-11 is descended from the original Su-27 "Flanker." More of an air to air fighter. The J-15 is a carrier version like the Su-33. The J-16 is a strike optimized version like the Su-30 or F-15E. Thus, greater emphasis on SEAD/DEAD and EW.
Yes, production wise, it looks like they're focused more on the J-16 out of these three platforms. In fact, the J-11 is a little dated by now and getting less attention/upgrades than newer models like J-10C, J-16 and J-20. Looks like the PLAAF is planning to replace the J-11's air to air capabilities with a high-low mix of J-20 and J-10C. Meanwhile, the J-16 will provided much improved strike capability.