US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter tphuang
- Start date
So less total fighter procurement than PLAAF will get in J20s alone next year, it seems.
PLAAF acquisitions wouldn’t be so high without the Pelosi thing. They were going to wait till WS-15 was ready before.
But the question is, should we expect the size of WS-15 equipped aircraft fleet to stay the same as initially planned? The aircraft that were procured since the incident are somewhat of an urgent procurement and they can't be easily retrofitted with the new engine, thus logic dictates us that it shouldn't reduce the planned size of the J-20A fleet. From a simplified point of view, It could be seen as if they simply replaced the older aircraft with J-20s instead of more J-10Cs.
The figure for the F-35s is not too far off from our J-20 estimates though; therefore, sustainment put aside, US will still have the advantage of having more 5th gens than China until 2030s; unless the PLA commits to even more J-20s or a land based J-35.
Anyway, these things don't even matter that much in the grand scheme of things. We are at the dawn of loyal wing(men?) and real large scale network-centric warfare as large scale procurement programs such as CCA begin to emerge from both the US and China.
I understand that 2023 saw issues with F-35 deliveries for the DoD, with the Pentagon not actually accepting already made planes. But have those issues not been resolved? If so, why don't the FY2025 procurement numbers show that? Should those not go back to 90 something F-35s, the same as they were around 2022 or so? With the ever increasing budget, it's doubtful that overall money or lack of it is the issue.
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
So basically they will probably look at adapting some of the vehicles systems into M107A8 but probably with a 52cal barrel.
I think there is also just a lot of budget uncertainty given that it is an election year and how divided American politics are. Have they even managed to pass a budget yet or are they still under a continuing resolution? What does America look like if Trump wins the upcoming election? Does that mean more military funding or is that Heritage foundation Project 2025 if enacted going to cause chaos?
Also, the bottom line is that without substantial investments and shifts in employment across a variety of manufacturing sectors it will be very difficult to drastically increase production output. So not only will it require more money, but that money has to be dedicated to building new production facilities and training and retaining workers. That is probably going to take a long time.
Outside of that, I think the Air Force cutting production to focus on future investment is really potentially risky. You have aircraft like the F-15 and F-16 that are being produced right now. If you keep cutting the force in hopes of some future aircraft and it turns out that aircraft is a dud you could be in really big trouble.
Also, the bottom line is that without substantial investments and shifts in employment across a variety of manufacturing sectors it will be very difficult to drastically increase production output. So not only will it require more money, but that money has to be dedicated to building new production facilities and training and retaining workers. That is probably going to take a long time.
Outside of that, I think the Air Force cutting production to focus on future investment is really potentially risky. You have aircraft like the F-15 and F-16 that are being produced right now. If you keep cutting the force in hopes of some future aircraft and it turns out that aircraft is a dud you could be in really big trouble.
I think this is the third new artillery system the US developed since the Cold War that got cancelled.
People joke about Russia having so many short barrel artillery guns. But the thing is it costs real money to make a rifled barrel. You basically drill the rifling into the barrel. The longer the gun is the harder a time you will have making enough rifled barrels.
So these kinds of long range guns are part of the solution but they never should be the bulk of what you use.