BabuK
JF-Expert Member
- Jul 30, 2008
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- 329
In this undated photo released by Japan Ministry of Defense, a Chinese SU-27 fighter plane is shown.
Chinese and Russian warplanes have been increasingly aggressive intercepting U.S. military aircraft and patrolling near America’s West Coast, prompting the Air Force’s top combat officer to label their provocations one of his top worries.
Air Force Gen. Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle, who leads Air Combat Command, said in an interview with USA TODAY that meeting the challenge from the Russian and Chinese to flights in international airspace is essential but dangerous.
“Our concern is a resurgent Russia and a very, very aggressive China,” Carlisle said.
Both countries are intent on expanding their spheres of influence — Russia in eastern Europe and the Pacific with China focusing much of its effort over the disputed South China Sea.
“Their intent is to get us not to be there,” Carlisle said. “So that the influence in those international spaces is controlled only by them. My belief is that we cannot allow that to happen. We have to continue to operate legally in international airspace and international waterways. We have to continue to call them out when they are being aggressive and unsafe.”
The stakes are high. Aggressive intercepts of U.S. patrol planes run the risk of mid-air collisions that would escalate tensions among nuclear powers.
“Any accident that occurs while the U.S. military is playing cat and mouse with Russian or Chinese forces could escalate into a real fight,” said Loren Thompson, a defense industry consultant and military analyst at the Lexington Institute. “If it does, American victory is not assured, because U.S. forces are operating thousands of miles from home and the other side is near its main bases. Small confrontations can turn into big wars, and Russian military doctrine embraces the use of nuclear weapons to win local conflicts."
An increasing number have occurred in recent months, Carlisle said, with fighters from Russia and China buzzing perilously close to American military aircraft.
The Pentagon has denounced the hazardous intercepts for more than a year, although condemnation hasn’t halted the practice. On May 17, two Chinese fighter jets flew dangerously close to a U.S. Navy patrol plane over the South China Sea. China has been on a campaign to assert its sovereignty over the busy waterways, building artificial islands on reefs in the sea and establishing military bases. In late April, a Russian fighter pilot performed a “barrel roll” over the top of an Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance plane, Carlisle said, above the Black Sea.
There has also been an uptick in long-range bomber activity from the Russians in Eastern Europe and extending to flights off the U.S. West Coast, Carlisle said.
“We have seen an increase,” Carlisle said. “All the way down to the California coast. The number and frequency has increased.”
For China, the goal appears to be establishing control of the international airspace over the South China Sea. There are conflicting territorial claims among countries in the region with China upping the ante by establishing a military bases on artificial islands around the Paracel and Spratley Islands chains.
Carlisle expects that the Chinese will institute an Air Defense Identification Zone over a large portion of the South China Sea. Zones like these extend beyond a country’s borders in its national security interests. Aircraft entering such a zone are required them to identify and locate themselves. The United States has established them after consulting with neighboring countries.
The Chinese unilaterally set up an identification zone in the East China Sea in 2013. Carlisle expects a similar action soon in the South China Sea.
“Their expansion into the Paracels and the Spratleys is so they can declare it and then have the capability to enforce it, where they can do intercepts,” Carlisle said. “They are doing it outside of what could be consider the norms.”
Maintaining communication with the Russian and Chinese military is key to avoiding mishaps, Carlisle said. Training pilots to deal with intercepts will continue.
“As they become more aggressive, you run the risk of miscalculation,” he said. “You don’t know where that’s going to lead, or end.”
...... This is Why You dont want with US air superiority....
The United States Military has endless resources at it’s disposal. They also employ some of the brightest minds this world has to offer. It only stands to reason that because of this they have quite a few secret projects that they are tirelessly trying to keep under wraps. These projects, mostly weapons, use advanced technology and are the best in their weapons class.
The reason that they are kept under wraps is because of the technology. The US doesn’t want other countries learning the technology that goes into the making of them. Sikorsky UH – 60 – The date was May 11, 2011. 25 – Navy Seals were in two choppers headed for the hideout of Osama bin Laden. They flew undetected for 200 km from the border of Afghanistan…
Civilians living in the area reported that they didn’t even hear the choppers until they were overhead. One of these choppers crash landed into one of the walls of the compound.
US forces used explosives to destroy it but a fragment of the tail remained intact and that was all it took to identify the Black Hawk Stealth and its top secret modifications that were from a program that was supposedly discontinued in 2006.
Blackstar – This is not really new technology but has been around since the 1980’s as a project that is being run by the intelligence agencies in the US. This is a plane that can actually go into orbit around the earth.
In the Challenger explosion in 1986, the US had orbital reconnaissance capabilities that were jeopardized and this project was an effort to retain those capabilities. The Blackstar is an orbital system that has 2 stages. It used a high speed aircraft that carried it right to the edge of space where it would separate and go into orbit 300 miles over the earth using the motor from a rocket.
This craft would then be able to conduct the reconnaissance that the US needed on materials that may be hidden from the paths that the spy satellites take.
RQ – 180
Northrop Grumman, with funding from the US Air Force’s budget for classified technology has created an unmanned aerial system that is the most advanced one to ever be made. This unit was designed for reconnaissance, surveillance and intelligence missions behind enemy lines.
Official sources say that this aircraft will be able to carry passive electronic surveillance measures as well as active electronically scanned array radar measures. This will allow it to handle the surveillance that was previously done by the SR-71 Blackbird before it was retired. The new testing hangars found at Area 51 suggest that it might have a wingspan of as much as 130 ft. It will be able to fly for over 24 hours and as high as 11 miles.
X – 37B
This is a robotic space plane that is operated by the US Air Force. It has been designed to be able to test reusable technologies for space. That said, its actual mission and payload are still classified.
This was originally a NASA craft but in 2004 it was transferred to the US government. This craft can be launched on an Atlas 5 rocket and can spend over a year in orbit before returning to the earth. Boeing has converted a facility at Kennedy Space Center for the purposes of developing a fleet of these.
Aurora
The first mention known of this craft was in a 1985 document for the budget of the nation. It was an allocation to the tune of $445 million for the production of a “black aircraft” in 1987.
Claims of the existence of this craft are based on the observations that this country has the technology that is necessary to build a hypersonic craft such as this one. There have also been sightings of a triangular, black aircraft that is accompanied by a contrail that resembles “donuts on a rope”.
This peculiar contrail is indicative that the craft has a pulse detonation engine. This craft is also linked to quite a few sonic booms that have been recorded at regular intervals by southern California’s U.S. Geological Survey sensors.
These were analyzed later by experts from NASA and they claim that it was something that was around 90,000 ft (or 27.4 km) high that was moving at either Mach 4 or 5.2.
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