CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VII (1, 2) Contemporary-Eurasia-3new

CONTEMPORARY EURASIA acy by destroying Chinese ﬁ ghters through their airborne control sys- tems. Certainly, there will be losses, but they will be less. Owing to the airborne control systems, as well as more powerful radars of American two-engined ﬁ ghters, C2 systems and long-range “air-to-air” class mis- siles, it is not diﬃ cult to guess the outcome of the air battles. Even suf- fering some losses, the US forces will still be deﬁ nitely able to deprive the Chinese ﬁ ghters of operational ﬂ ights and some amount of American ﬁ ghters will even take part in delivering strikes to Chinese ﬁ ghters’ air- dromes, AD installations, and other targets. Certainly, all sides will suﬀ er losses, but in all respects the side which is better prepared, experienced and has more resources will be able to achieve greater success. The num- ber of ﬁ rst strikes by cruise missiles, UAVs, along with missile decoys can daily make up to 5000-6000, which in accordance with the appro- priate EW can ensure a breakthrough of Chinese defense. One should be reminded that tactical ﬁ ghters at this time can carry “air-to-air” missiles, four long-range cruise missiles, own EW assets and additional fuel tanks at a time while one-engine ﬁ ghters that are not counted in this equation can ensure up to 1000ml ﬂ ight radius with additional fuel tanks, minimal armament and missile decoys. But only with their ﬂ ights and launching some “ADM-160 MALD” and “ADM-141 TALD” missile decoys from each ﬁ ghter, American aircraft can reveal the Chinese AD system, force them open useless ﬁ re and then suppress them. The fact is that over the past years the American military has com- pletely mastered the strategy of breaking similar protections, while China has no experience or some speciﬁ c assets: the core of this model is that Chinese side is willing to assume the role of a goalkeeper that will try to administer blows only from the ground depths. Thus actually the initia- tive will pass to the American side and if the latter is able to deliver the ﬁ rst punch then everything will be easier. Over these years the following pattern has been formed, which can break any defense. 1. Air grouping initially will be composed of approximately 50-60% strike aircraft and 40-50% of supporting air force special assets. These include primarily reconnaissance, airborne control and EW ﬂ ying assets. This percentage may somewhat decrease, taking into account those aircraft of new generation, which successfully com- bine strike and other functions. 2. During the ﬁ rst strikes until air superiority is not completely en- sured, the density of strike assets must be at least 1,5-2 times more than AD target engagement channels. Additional aircraft with their secondary problems may further complicate the situation for ground AD, but just strike assets launched from aircraft must be in that ra- 16

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