China’s Military Transformation
China, the world’s largest military force, has been transforming and modernizing its military capabilities from a land-based infantry-centered army into a fully mechanized, nimble active defense and rapid response fighting force capable of dealing with diverse security threats. According to China’s defense policy white paper released in January 2009, the Peoples Liberation Army will pursue a three-stage development strategy for its military reform. The first step is to “setup a solid foundation by 2010, accomplish mechanization and make major progress by 2020, and reach full modernization by the middle of this century.”
The air force and navy will take on the primary military roles and the massive Soviet style army structure is reduced to smaller fighting forces organized in brigades and battalions. A new Air Force Military Professional University was established in July 2008 to study new training methods suited to the weaponry and battle environments of the 21st-century.
China is catching up fast on the military technology front with the U.S. China debut its most advanced fighter plane at the 2008 China Air Show. The J-10 is the centerpiece of China’s military aerospace program ─ China’s answer to the Pentagon’s F-16, 150 of which America sold to Taiwan in 1992. Meanwhile, the U.S. is arming itself with more F-22s. An arms race is clearly developing faster than many pundits anticipated. The show also featured various anti-ship missiles like the C-602 and C-705 which have a range of 200 kilometers and can easily be used to deter any U.S. naval interference in the Taiwan Strait.
The 21st century opened with the U.S. Air Force and the Space Warfare Center in Colorado staging their first military war game in space. The imaginary enemy in the conflict was China. The scenario was 2017 with both combatants playing star wars. Is this how America really wants to start the new millennium? Hopefully, former NASA astronaut Lee Morin’s prediction of congenial relations between the Chinese and U.S. space programs will be correct. I am not optimistic.
Beijing sees the U.S. as a waning superpower, according to a Department of Defense report titled Dangerous Chinese Perceptions: The Implications for DOD. This report was submitted in the wake of an earlier report concluding that the U.S. would lose a naval confrontation with China in the region. Knowing this, why provoke one, especially when the Rand Corporation forecast for the DOD a cross-strait war by 2012?
The air force and navy will take on the primary military roles and the massive Soviet style army structure is reduced to smaller fighting forces organized in brigades and battalions. A new Air Force Military Professional University was established in July 2008 to study new training methods suited to the weaponry and battle environments of the 21st-century.
China is catching up fast on the military technology front with the U.S. China debut its most advanced fighter plane at the 2008 China Air Show. The J-10 is the centerpiece of China’s military aerospace program ─ China’s answer to the Pentagon’s F-16, 150 of which America sold to Taiwan in 1992. Meanwhile, the U.S. is arming itself with more F-22s. An arms race is clearly developing faster than many pundits anticipated. The show also featured various anti-ship missiles like the C-602 and C-705 which have a range of 200 kilometers and can easily be used to deter any U.S. naval interference in the Taiwan Strait.
The 21st century opened with the U.S. Air Force and the Space Warfare Center in Colorado staging their first military war game in space. The imaginary enemy in the conflict was China. The scenario was 2017 with both combatants playing star wars. Is this how America really wants to start the new millennium? Hopefully, former NASA astronaut Lee Morin’s prediction of congenial relations between the Chinese and U.S. space programs will be correct. I am not optimistic.
Beijing sees the U.S. as a waning superpower, according to a Department of Defense report titled Dangerous Chinese Perceptions: The Implications for DOD. This report was submitted in the wake of an earlier report concluding that the U.S. would lose a naval confrontation with China in the region. Knowing this, why provoke one, especially when the Rand Corporation forecast for the DOD a cross-strait war by 2012?
posted by Peter de Krassel's Custom Maid Politics at 9:59 PM
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