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TACLANE@Risk_AF_201007.indd 1 7/7/10 3:55 PM August 2010, Vol. 93, No. 8 2 Editorial: The China Gap 62 Weyland’s Wars By Robert S. Dudney By Walter J. Boyne The US may be in a military air- In Europe and Korea, Gen. Otto power race with China, but only one Weyland showed how airpower side is racing. should support the ground forces. 24 Crowded, Congested Space 68 2010-11 AFA Nominees By James Kitfield Candidates for national offices and In the “commons” above Earth, US the Board of Directors. military forces must deal with junk and potential predators. 30 F-35 at Endgame By Marc V. Schanz 30 The big fighter program has been revamped for success. That’s good, because the US is running out of alternatives. 36 The RPA Boom By John A. Tirpak Remotely piloted aircraft will not only be more numerous but also used in virtually every mission area. 38 44 AirSea Battle By Richard Halloran www.airforce-magazine.com A new operational concept looks to 4 Letters prepare the US and its allies to deter or defeat Chinese power. 7 Washington Watch 49 10 Air Force World 49 Thinking Outside the Wire By Megan Scully 16 Senior Staff Changes The rise of “joint expeditionary task- ings” has pushed airmen to train 18 Index to Advertisers harder for ground combat. 20 Chart Page 52 Desert Shield 22 Issue Brief By Rebecca Grant 35 Verbatim Twenty years ago this month, Iraq seized Kuwait, and the US launched 43 Keeper File a buildup that led to today’s expedi- tionary Air Force. 66 Flashback 72 Field Contacts 58 USAF’s Indispensable “Failures” By Peter Grier 74 AFA National Leaders The F-15, AWACS, and C-17 were 75 AFA National Report derided as boondoggles early on. About the cover: An Imint satellite. Things changed. 78 Unit Reunions Illustration by Erik Simonsen. See “Crowded, Congested Space,” p. 24. 80 Airpower Classics AIR FORCE Magazine (ISSN 0730-6784) August 2010 (Vol. 93, No. 8) is published monthly by the Air Force Association, 1501 Lee Highway, Arlington, VA 22209-1198. Phone (703) 247-5800. Second-class postage paid at Arlington, Va., and additional mailing offices. Membership Rate: $45 per year; $110 for three-year membership. Life Membership (nonrefundable): $600 single payment, $630 extended payments. Subscription Rate: $45 per year; $29 per year additional for postage to foreign addresses (except Canada and Mexico, which are $10 per year additional). Regular issues $5 each. USAF Almanac issue $8 each. Change of address requires four weeks’ notice. Please include mailing label. POSTMAS- TER: Send changes of address to Air Force Association, 1501 Lee Highway, Arlington, VA 22209-1198. Publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material. Trademark registered by Air Force Association. Copyright 2010 by Air Force Association. AIR FORCE Magazine / August 2010 1 Editorial By Robert S. Dudney, Editor in Chief The China Gap DM. Michael G. Mullen recently will have one of the world’s foremost air few, if any, of our bases near China Acalled worried attention to China’s forces by 2020.” are operating.” “heavy investments” in advanced “ex- Nearly 500 of China’s approximately The interlocking power of modern peditionary, maritime, and air capa- 1,600 fighters now are of the fourth fighters, dense air defenses, and dev- bilities.” This, he noted, is “oddly out generation type. They can be seen as at astating attacks on air bases, combined of step” with Beijing’s “stated goal of technical parity with US fighters such as with capabilities to strike at US cyber territorial defense.” the F-15 and F-16, he noted. If Ulman is and space systems, threatens US land- The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs correct, China will have a stealthy “fifth and sea-based airpower with “lockout” of Staff implied China had a more generation” fighter, rivaling USAF’s F-22 from the western Pacific. ominous aim. The “gap” between its Raptor, operational by 2018, years ear- In fact, said Richard D. Fisher Jr., a words and deeds is large, Mullen told lier than Gates himself has estimated. China airpower expert of the Interna- the Asia Society June 9. It is so large, Roger Cliff, a RAND Corp. ana- tional Strategy and Assessment Center, in fact, that he has “moved from being China’s effort “has the potential to end curious [about the buildup’s purpose] The US may be in a the assurance of US air superiority in to being genuinely concerned.” military airpower race with Asia, absent a vigorous US response.” Mullen’s words were unusual; frank China, but only one side The US may be in a military airpower talk about the threat of growing Chi- race with China, but only one side is nese power is rare. Even as China has is racing. racing. pressed to build up its military forces, lyst, noted that China now produces The record of US neglect in recent Washington has reacted tepidly. This a beyond-visual-range radar-guided years is long, in Grant’s assessment. stems from the existence of a second air-to-air missile comparable to the She notes that the Obama Administra- and more significant “China gap.” US AMRAAM or Russian AA-12, and tion has halted the key F-22 program at Rebecca Grant, director of the Mitch- a variety of laser, TV, and satellite only 187 fighters; blocked Japan’s bid to ell Institute for Airpower Studies, defines guided precision munitions. Cliff noted acquire its own F-22s; failed to launch it as “the gap between China’s steady that modern hardware alone does not a new long-range bomber program; pursuit of military capabilities under an necessarily bring more strength, with- delayed acquisition of a tanker; limited artful strategy [and] US defense strat- out advances in doctrine, training, and deployment of missile defense systems; egy, which has apparently chosen to logistics. “However,” he said, “China has and fumbled an effort to streamline its downgrade and minimize the need for been making progress in many of these cyberwar operations. conventional deterrence in the Pacific.” dimensions as well.” Gates constantly reminds allies that Grant was referring to Secretary of The panel heard warnings that the US air and naval assets outnumber Defense Robert M. Gates’ reorientation PLAAF has made a tremendous invest- those of China. of US military capabilities away from de- ment in ground-based air defenses, “This pointless bean counting does terrence of China’s conventional forces needed to blunt any USAF operations little to account for the fact that US air to lower-tech, irregular combat in Iraq against Chinese targets. Since 2000, and naval forces must reach far across and Afghanistan. the PLAAF has purchased many more the globe to project power,” Grant said. The SECDEF’s assumption seems to Russian SA-20 SAMs. China also has DOD has not been totally inert in the be US air and naval forces still maintain begun to deploy the domestically pro- face of Beijing’s challenge. It has begun a comfortable lead in the Pacific. duced HQ-9, comparable to the SA-20. the task of expanding its network of This concept took heavy fire in recent In a future war, Ulman reports, US Pacific bases. USAF and the Navy are hearings of the US-China Economic and airpower would face “one of the world’s developing “AirSea Battle,” an employ- Security Review Commission, chartered most advanced and robust air defense ment concept aimed at maximizing their by Congress. Experts noted that China’s networks.” joint-force power in the Pacific. air force, in particular, has advanced Jeff Hagen, an engineer-analyst from The situation is neither desperate from being a regional power with lim- the RAND Corp., told the panel that nor beyond repair. The $15 trillion US ited capabilities to a force with growing China’s burgeoning ballistic missile force economy exceeds China’s by a factor potential to imperil US interests. threatens USAF’s major regional air of two, and could easily support modest Wayne A. Ulman, the China issues bases. He estimated that, today, China force improvements. manager at the National Air and Space could throw 480 ballistic missiles and Administration leaders might ponder Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson 350 cruise missiles at Osan and Kunsan that fact as they make budget and force- AFB, Ohio, asserted that the capabili- in South Korea, and 80 ballistic missiles planning decisions in months ahead. ties of the People’s Liberation Army Air and 350 cruise missiles at Kadena, Mi- “Anti-access and area denial are Force (PLAAF) have grown “dramati- sawa, and Yokota in Japan. At present, not simply buzzwords we use to argue cally” over the past decade.