I fail to see the relevance Dal. Milo, exactly. It's a very serious
commitment, all or nothing. I do see some good that can come out of
cooperation, but it needs to be really deep, not just superficial.
As for collaboration with India, I won't mind having an "in" on the
Brahmos 2 project :) weasel, I said work with them, not smack them
in the face. :P There are still areas where they are short, their
"Spike equivalent" is the Chinese copy of the Sagger, very old
ATGM, and they havn't really developed the concept of airmobile yet
which could be helpful to them considering the size of their
country and lack of superhighways. They're also dependent on air
engine imports from Russia, their main production bottleneck. As
for Singapore suppliers, some stuff they just don't let out. If we
can't get F-22s, why not J-20s? Most people won't simply sell their
stealth fighters, so we need some "pull" to encourage sales, hence
the idea of collaboration (i.e we scratch your back, you scratch
ours). Don't tell me Singapore's defences won't be greatly improved
with stealth tech?
If the J-20 is as good as it says, the RSAF/DSTA may consider.
But same reason as why the RSAF rejected the Su-35 in favour of the
F-15s, that will need to overcome IFF, system, maintenance, tech
transfer issues. Its not just the plane but the system. It
would be terrible if the J-20s end up shooting down airliners by
mistake (it has happened for other systems).
On the plane itself, consider if its worth getting a
plane that flies only 50% of the time when another can fly 90% of
the time. No one knows how reliable the J-20 will be.
Also, despite all the talk about how good the J-20 is, many
people forget, ignore or plainly don't know what the
F-35 can do. That is a stealth aircraft further in development,
equipped with the latest electronics that the US possess etc. Most
important of all, Singapore paid to have full access to
info on the a/c. Clearly the RSAF will know what its capabilities
are.
Missiles are another consideration. The J-20 can be a better
aircraft but ultimately, a fighter will need to shoot down the
opposing aircraft. No point having a fighter that doesn't use
missiles that can shoot down the opposing aircraft. On the other
hand, the Amraam is tested in combat and Singapore has the
advanced variants.
Even the older F-15s has advanced sniper pods (besides AESA
radars) that can detect and track stealth aircraft at range
using non-radar techniques. The F-35 brings that one step further
with internal sensor fusion. Do the Chinese have access to
that technology?
