PLA strike strategies in westpac HIC

Blitzo

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Registered Member
I don’t anticipate China to operate aircraft from Russian base during a westpac conflict as a regular thing, but rather as an emergency. So from that sense, it’s good for them to get a few practice in. Doesn’t matter as much where the missions is to.

And I would also like to see more overflight into Sea of Japan.

I mean, a degree of interoperability and familiarization is useful in general sure, but I'm referring to the "All cooperations we are seeing that are new and would be significant in westpac scenario" part.

IMO, the cooperation we are seeing now is very much not significant nor relevant for a westpac conflict scenario because the sheer amount of materiel needed to make a PLA basing in Russia's far east to be an asset rather than a burden is so much more significant than this.


In terms of gradually having more cooperation and familiarization in that region for the PLA, sure it's useful.
 

tphuang

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Super Moderator
VIP Professional
Registered Member
I mean, a degree of interoperability and familiarization is useful in general sure, but I'm referring to the "All cooperations we are seeing that are new and would be significant in westpac scenario" part.

IMO, the cooperation we are seeing now is very much not significant nor relevant for a westpac conflict scenario because the sheer amount of materiel needed to make a PLA basing in Russia's far east to be an asset rather than a burden is so much more significant than this.


In terms of gradually having more cooperation and familiarization in that region for the PLA, sure it's useful.
Well, these cooperations are definitely new.

As for significance, that depends on how valuable you think it is to have emergency landings or occasional takeoffs from Russian airport. Unless Russia is willing to subject itself to US attacks in a conflict, I don't think it would be willing to have PLA operate out of its far eastern airport. There are probably also large part of Russian military establishment that would frown on another nation have a permanent presence out of one of its air base. After all, Russia sees itself as equal to China and not a vassal. I think the latter would be an even bigger issue than the former.

The other question is whether there are practical lessons they can learn from undertaking these type of missions to Alaska that they cannot get from flying 5 hours in a different direction. That I wouldn't know the answer to.
 

tphuang

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Super Moderator
VIP Professional
Registered Member
this kind of stuff makes me almost think that US military is not interested in a Westpac conflict

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

how do you sustain an operation in Westpac without oceangoing replenishment ships? It's mind boggling. IIRC, there is already an issue with US navy having enough ocean going replenishment ships to sustain an operation in Westpac. Sustaining 3 to 4 carrier groups takes a lot of replenishment. And now, you are going to lose 17 ships because of crew shortage issues?

At this pace, it will be obvious to everyone that America can't seriously contest in Asia.
 

FairAndUnbiased

Brigadier
Registered Member
Got it! Quite inconspicuous.

Could be a good opportunity to gauge RCS for F-35 if they weren’t rocking luneburg lenses.
If they flew near ground bases, could aircraft parked in the open could have their topside RCS measured? Doppler measurements would be useless but maybe SAR mode would be useful?
 
Top