Your question presupposes that recon satellites will still be a thing within 24 hours of a US-China war starting. This is vanishingly unlikely.
Chinese UCAV/CCA/Loyal Wingman (sensor, A2A and A2G) thread
- Thread starter VESSEL
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This most certainly deserves its own thread but the sheer number of recon capable satellites that both us and china have (govt and commercial) , and the number they add each year, means it's more or less impossible to neutralize most even within months. Let alone 24 hours. So both China and US are likely to keep operating recon satellites well into a war.
There's also the possibility that they may behind the scenes 'make an agreement' to not attack the other's satellites (at least not kinematically, hacking, ew etc. ,maybe more ok?).
Or even if they don't contact each to make such and agreement, both might decide to not attack the other's satellite's kinematically at first, and only respond if they other does so, which might result in them being spared.
I think both US and China has enough launch capability that it's a fool's errand at this point to out shoot each other in satellites. The consequences of mutually assured destruction in space is also so catastrophic that it'll piss off the entire world over as low orbit Kessler syndrome is measured in decades if not centuries.
Exactly, that's why I think kinematic attacks on satellites will be quite unlikely (not impossible, but very low chance of happening).
It's also a slippery slope towards space based weaponry (anti-sat->space ABM -> fractional bombardment).
but this is getting off topic enough.
even if its only M3, at 30000m i really doubt it can be shot down with anything Taiwan/Japan/south korea can fire at it.
Got this question bugging me for quite a while: Is a twin-seater fighter (especially 5th-gen ones) really mandatory for flying and managing loyal wingman UCAVs?
I believe we all know that the appearance of the twin-seater variant of the J-20, i.e. J-20S since late 2021 has brought the discussion in the direction of J-20S' (expected) capability to control and manage loyal wingman UCAVs. That is, one pilot is responsible for flying the J-20S, another is responsible for flying those UCAVs. This point is often quoted in mass media and military circle discussions as well.
Although, a twin-seater fighter itself certainly isn't a new concept - the US has also planned twin-seater variants for their F-22 and F-35, but both plans were eventually scrapped. We might never see twin-seater variants for the F-22 and F-35 either, considering that LockMart and others are already working on 6th-gen fighters.
Despite this, do we - or shall I say, should we - seriously expect that LockMart would never find solutions/ways that would allow their F-35s to fly and control loyal wingman UCAVs even with just one pilot onboard?
If achievable, wouldn't advancement in AI, computer processing and automation onboard renders having one more pilot onboard just to fly those UCAVs redundant?
Besides, I think that having the ability to fly loyal wingman UCAVs with only one pilot per fighter can also reduce the need for building more twin-seater variants of said fighter just to cater for the need of having fighters that can fly and control loyal wingman UCAVs, while the rest of the single-seater fighters cannot do so.
This allows pretty much as many of said fighters of the same model across the entire fleet to be able to be attached with loyal wingman UCAVs, instead of just certain ones of twin-seater variant that can only be available in certain locations at any given time?
Moreover, this also allows the flying and control task of loyal wingman UCAVs to be easily swappable and transferable between vastly more fighters of the same model on the battlefield when the need arises (such as in case the original manned fighter flying those drones got shot down/forced to return to base prematurely, etc). Flexibility and logistics certainly can benefit a lot from this too.
I do wonder - Can China's single-seater J-20A/Bs (and J-35/31s in the future) be capable of flying and controlling loyal wingman UCAVs in the future? If possible, how long until this can become a reality? Or do we have to wait until 6th-gen fighters to be equipped of such capabilities?
I believe we all know that the appearance of the twin-seater variant of the J-20, i.e. J-20S since late 2021 has brought the discussion in the direction of J-20S' (expected) capability to control and manage loyal wingman UCAVs. That is, one pilot is responsible for flying the J-20S, another is responsible for flying those UCAVs. This point is often quoted in mass media and military circle discussions as well.
Although, a twin-seater fighter itself certainly isn't a new concept - the US has also planned twin-seater variants for their F-22 and F-35, but both plans were eventually scrapped. We might never see twin-seater variants for the F-22 and F-35 either, considering that LockMart and others are already working on 6th-gen fighters.
Despite this, do we - or shall I say, should we - seriously expect that LockMart would never find solutions/ways that would allow their F-35s to fly and control loyal wingman UCAVs even with just one pilot onboard?
If achievable, wouldn't advancement in AI, computer processing and automation onboard renders having one more pilot onboard just to fly those UCAVs redundant?
Besides, I think that having the ability to fly loyal wingman UCAVs with only one pilot per fighter can also reduce the need for building more twin-seater variants of said fighter just to cater for the need of having fighters that can fly and control loyal wingman UCAVs, while the rest of the single-seater fighters cannot do so.
This allows pretty much as many of said fighters of the same model across the entire fleet to be able to be attached with loyal wingman UCAVs, instead of just certain ones of twin-seater variant that can only be available in certain locations at any given time?
Moreover, this also allows the flying and control task of loyal wingman UCAVs to be easily swappable and transferable between vastly more fighters of the same model on the battlefield when the need arises (such as in case the original manned fighter flying those drones got shot down/forced to return to base prematurely, etc). Flexibility and logistics certainly can benefit a lot from this too.
I do wonder - Can China's single-seater J-20A/Bs (and J-35/31s in the future) be capable of flying and controlling loyal wingman UCAVs in the future? If possible, how long until this can become a reality? Or do we have to wait until 6th-gen fighters to be equipped of such capabilities?
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The use of loyal wingman is all about cost and design. I think the bigger problem with loyal wingman is that It still need to follow the lead plane. Speed and range need to be compatible somewhat or you need to refuel them, or make them fly alone to join the lead plane. Using them to guard tanker and awacs could be interesting tho.
If it's just following and being an external weapons transport, AI and datalink could do all task needed, even changing plane when he lost contact with his lead. A single pilot is enough for controlling Lapdogs with missiles, but if you want more than that it's becoming a bit more complicated.
If you made them compatible with the capabilities of the lead plane, with radar, range and kinetics, it will cost the price of a full fledged fighter. No pilots true but it's not cheap at all. In that case it will need to be way more thoughtfully controlled than being a lapdog with missiles. So a twin seater is quite relevant to control them. Making them do scouting, interception or bombing run while staying farther up is clearly a bigger task than asking for a missile launch.
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