5 U.S. Weapons of War China Should Fear

five American weapons of war China should fear as a superpower the United States is maintained a formidable technologically advanced military for decades while the Chinese weapons highlighted last week were often designed with the United States in mind none of the weapons this week were explicitly designed to fight China in fact many of the weapons featured here were first designed during the Cold War and predate China's military rise again it's important to point out that the chances of war between the United States and China are remote there's too much advantage for both countries and maintaining the status quo of a strong economic relationship roughly 500 billion dollars in bilateral trade and cordial and stiff diplomatic ties a war would be political economic and military disaster for both sides number-one ford-class aircraft carriers since the end of the Second World War the aircraft carriers been the symbol of American power projection American carriers typically displace up to 100,000 tons fully loaded the embarked carrier airwing typically includes four squadrons of fa-18 C Hornet or fa-18 EF Super Hornet Strike Fighters up to 52 aircraft total four or five ea-6b prowler or ea-18g growler electronic warfare aircraft approximately a dozen mh-60 seahawks and a pair of c2 Greyhound carrier on board delivery aircraft the Ford class America's latest class of aircraft carriers the first of which is set to join the US Navy in 2016 is the weapon system China fears most the mix of aircraft on board a carrier makes it capable of a wide variety of missions including air superiority land attack anti-ship and anti-submarine warfare modern aircraft carriers represent a threat not only to Chinese naval and air forces away from China but couldn't strike China itself aircraft carriers such as the USS Ford are also visible reminders of Chinese technological inferiority from the nuclear reactors to electromagnetic catapult systems designed to hurl aircraft into the air to the integrated anti-air warfare system American carriers represent a showcase of technologies that China hasn't mastered last summer while China was proudly certifying its first pilots and deck crew to operate from the carrier Liang Ning the historic event was undercut by news of an American x-47b unmanned drone landing for the first time on the carrier USS George Bush American aircraft carriers are symbols to China of American intrusion into its sphere of influence in 1996 in response to Chinese missile launches near Taiwan the USS Nimitz and USS independence carrier battle groups were sent into the Taiwan Strait there was nothing the Chinese military could have done to prevent the carriers from entering the Strait the humiliation deeply affected Chinese thinking and was almost certainly the impetus for the development of weapons such as the D F 21 D anti-ship ballistic missile or a SBM number 2 f-22 Raptor the f-22 Raptor is currently the only operational fifth-generation fighter in the world a stealthy single-seat fighter with ground attack reconnaissance and electronic warfare capabilities the f-22 is capable of cruising at mach 1.8 to 1,200 20 miles per hour without afterburner the f-22 carries up to qu aim-9x short-range and six aim-120 medium-range anti-aircraft missiles in the fighter role and can carry precision guided Aird weapons in the ground attack role China fears the f-22 because there's nothing like it in China's arsenal for the foreseeable future the f-22 will dominate the air environment wherever it's sent china's existing fighters the indigenous j-10 and various derivatives of the su-27 flanker design j11 j16 Sukhoi 30 MK k are not stealthy and in a beyond visual range battle would be at a disadvantage against the f-22 in a shooting war the f-22 Raptor could [ __ ] the People's Liberation Army Air Force PLA AF by stripping away support aircraft that allow Chinese fighters and bombers to fly long distances f-22 could evade Chinese combat air patrol sweeps and engage airborne early-warning AAW aircraft such as the KJ 2000 and midair refueling aircraft such as the cyan h6 Chinese aircraft would then be limited to whatever fuel they can carry and Chinese early warning coverage will be limited to mainland radar installations the ground attack and electronic warfare capabilities of the f-22 would also pose a problem for the PLA F the F twenty-twos ability to evade radar on route 2 bombing targets on the ground makes it a platform that can likely penetrate Chinese air defenses the f-22 sensor suite makes it capable of quietly collecting enemy data such as radio and grade our emissions without an adversary knowing it was in the area this capability could even be useful in peacetime for intelligence collection purposes China does have fifth-generation fighter aircraft and development to counter the f-22 the j-20 whose development path is uncertain may emerge as a fighter to challenge the f-22 the j-31 is another fifth-generation design development prototypes of both aircraft are currently flying but it may be another decade before either reach operational status in the meantime China is very exposed to the f-22 threat and there's not a whole lot it can do about it number three virginia-class submarine the virginia-class attack submarines are the most advanced nuclear submarines in the world first introduced in 2004 the virginia-class submarines displace 7800 tons and are powered by a single s9g nuclear reactor that gives each unlimited range the submarines are not only capable of attacking enemy ships and submarines but also capable of launching cruise missile attacks serving as a mothership for unmanned undersea vehicles supporting naval special operations forces and collecting intelligence the submarines are armed with four torpedo tubes armed with a mixture of mark 48 guided torpedoes and sub harpoon anti-ship missiles in addition to torpedo tube armament the virginia-class has 12 vertical launch silos for tomahawk land attack long-range cruise missiles the submarines can also transport US Navy SEALs and other naval Special Forces China fears the virginia-class submarines because it is zero operational experience in anti-submarine warfare ASW and a woefully insufficient ASW capability none of China's submarines including the Shang nuclear or yuan class diesel electric boats can match the virginia-class and sensors stealth and armament and would be at a distinct disadvantage in one-on-one undersea duel China has approximately three y8 long-range maritime patrol aircraft in the same class as the Western p-3c Orion Japan by contrast has roughly 100 p-3c Orion's and considers a SW so important it's developing its own replacement for the aging Orion most if not all of China's service lead including the carrier Lao Ning have anti-submarine weapons but they're of unknown quality and many such as a SW torpedoes are copies of older Western and Soviet designs China is currently working to improve its ASW capabilities including building up to 20 Type O 54 a frigates armed with modern sonars anti-submarine barrel mortars torpedoes and s/w helicopters an anti-submarine variant of the type 56 corvette equipped with an advanced towed sonar array is rumored to be under production Beijing is also hard at work developing an ocean floor surveillance network 11 Virginia class submarines are currently in service with a projected overall buy of at least 30 submarines the Virginia class represents an exceptional capability pointed against an exceptional vulnerability in a future conflict with China the Virginia submarines could punch well above their weight number for b-2 spirit one of the most recognizable weapons in the world the bat-winged b-2 spirit bomber is causal one of the deadliest originally conceived as a strategic nuclear bomber the b2 was modified at the end of the Cold War to also serve as a conventional bomber the beach use ability to penetrate air defense networks travel up to 6,000 miles without refueling and carry up to 40 tons of satellite-guided bombs makes it possibly the most lethal weapons system currently in existence the b2 is fearsome to Beijing as its undetectable and can reach targets anywhere in China the b2 can take off from Andersen Air Force Base on the island of Guam and strike targets in Xinjiang and Shanghai if the United States and China were to go to war in the western Pacific China could expect strikes anywhere within its borders this has far-reaching implications no part of China would be safe any air base ammunition depot rail station power station or port could be attacked the amount of airspace China would have to defend increases dramatically and China would have to spread out its force of 296 su-27 and su-35 fighters to cover the entire country even then detection and interception would be far from guaranteed the b2 is yet another weapon system that illustrates the many one-sided advantages the United States possesses in any hypothetical conflict with the United States China could not hope to attack the US mainland with anything but cyber and nuclear weapon the beach who has no equivalent in Chinese Arsenal's although to be fair a strategic bomber has never been a Chinese priority there are rumors of a stealth bomber underdeveloped in China but so far nothing tangibles appear unlike the other weapons on this list the b-2 bomber has already attacked Chinese territory technically the b2 is name recognition in China for having mistakenly attacked the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade during NATO's 1999 air campaign against Yugoslavia three Chinese citizens were killed and 20 wounded in what the Chinese government called a barbarian Act the bombing setback us-chinese relations and ignited considerable anti-american sentiment in China five f-35 lightning to the f-35 lightning ii is America's next generation fighter bomber meant to replace existing aircraft such as the f16 fa-18 C and a-10 maligned for being over budget and behind schedule the f-35 Strike Fighter has had a rocky development history still of the f-35 does indeed eventually work as advertised it will be a formidable aircraft the sheer number of f-35s in service will be problematic for Beijing although the US Air Force's campaign to make every new fighter a fifth-generation fighter has been enormously expensive and resulting in an aging fighter fleet and all stealth fighter fleet does complicate matters for potential adversaries the f-35 will extend China's stealth problem in any future conflict China would already likely see f-22 Raptors based at Kadena Air Base on the island of Okinawa US Air Force f-16 fighters at Misawa Air Base in northern Japan will likely be replaced by f-35 A's the increased range of the f-35 over the f16 means that fighters from Misawa could theoretically strike the Chinese mainland with standoff weapons further complicating the issue for Beijing some of China's other potential adversaries such as Australia will also be flying f-35s all of China's air defenses from aew aircraft to surface-to-air missiles guarding aircraft carriers to man portable systems have to be optimized against stealth aircraft not even the United States is properly prepared for such a threat well aircraft such as the f-35 are extremely expensive and all stealth force does push adversaries to invest in expensive upgrades of their air defenses finally like the f-22 Raptor the f-35 has an advanced suite of sensors that add intelligence collection reconnaissance and electronic warfare capabilities the f-35 s an aaq 37 distributed aperture system is reportedly capable of tracking ballistic missiles and other targets at ranges exceeding 800 miles while the apg-81 radar system can map terrain and enemy forces on the ground these capabilities will be useful not only in wartime but peacetime as well

Channel: U.S. Military Technology

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Keywords: news, cnn, us news, science & technology, 5 weapon, new weapon, 5 U.S. Weapons, air force, us air force, usaf, america, secret weapon, us military, defence news, breaking news

Id: oVB30NgFg8w

Length: 13min 32sec (812 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 12 2019