You have not been reading a lot do you? So don't give me this lack of training stereotype. PLAAF pilots now train 140 to 180 hours yearly, not as high as NATO 200 hours, but then many air forces don't fill that quota either. The thing is, these PLAAF pilots have more of their training dedicated in air combat and tactics because they don't divide their time into multirole, as they have seperate bomber and strike groups.
This would be precisely why I come to this forum. I was unaware that the Chinese had failed to purchase multi-role aircraft. Specialization of that type is definitely a point in mainland air arms favor. However there is the human element to consider. In this element is hardly without substance when we look at the history of warfare.
The Politburo's and Air Force will likely be a little bit more political than professional as the PRC's Politburo relies upon its armed forces and intelligence agencies to protect itself from its own populations, desire for change. Therefore much more strict adherence and obedience to authority is stressed and much less creative thinking on and off the battlefield is tolerated. The history of put highly political military forces against highly professional military forces has not been kind to the more political force of the two. This is been as much true when we compare the Spartans to the Persians as when we compare the Iraqi army against that of the United States in the first Gulf War.
The killing of highly placed commanders in forces that use a Soviet style command structure is highly effective. Disruptions from upper-level command to subordinates can be devastating to rigid command structures. While the Chinese government remains quite authoritarian the addition of capitalism may have changed their military and opened up a weakness in my argument. The question is can the Chinese army of today be more akin in to the Cold War's Soviet Army or to Germany's forces from 1933 to 1945 ( since the economic structures of the PRC and the German historical listed above are quite similar at this time).
A huge question of which I hope this form can help me centers on the current nature of the PRC forces. If the forces of mainland China are trained more in the fashion that Germany's pre-Cold War Armed Forces, not to completely rethink my argument. However if China still trains its forces in the more Soviet fashion then a US and Taiwan Air Force you working jointly with half a far less challenging time repelling PRC and attacks. The current political culture of PRC armed forces is of primary importance, for the purposes of evaluating likely outcomes.
What makes you think the ROCAF can achieve a 4 to 1 kill favor. Against PLAAF planes using the PL-12, they are seeing a negative ratio in simulations, which is prompting calls to obtain the latest C7 AMRAAM variant in order to redress the favor. The ROCAF is already seriously outmatched in the close range area due to the proficiency and presence of helmet sighting systems and wide off boresight missiles on the part of the PLAAF which they can redress with acquiring AIM-9X. However, the PLAAF still continues to improve, since they now have their own force multipliers like AEWS, C31, dedicated ECM/EW planes.
My speculations are presented as a
upper end worst case for the mainlands military air arm. My predictions are also predicated upon the Unitied States aiding Taiwan in the event of belligerency on the part of the PRC. The ROK's airforce alone might fulfill its mission but be so very badly Mauled that it would be in every bit a state of jeopardy as the Royal Airforce was against hordes of German Bombers and fighters midway through operation SeaLion. (in other words the dependence upon the enemy choosing its targets poorly and focusing on cities instead of air installations)
Like the British the Taiwanese will have a motivation to fight with extreme valor and commitment. As far as the Taiwanese are concerned their government IS the legitimate government of China, and the PRC is simply a counter revolution Chang Kai Shek failed to quell due to the untimely arrival of the Japanese.
