source :
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/5/26/154053.shtml
Charles R. Smith
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
China is about to receive 24 advanced Sukhoi Su-30MK2 Flanker
fighters from Russia. The new fighter jets are reported to be the
naval versions of the Sukhoi Su-30MKK fighter.
The new Chinese fighters are reportedly equipped with enhanced
anti-ship strike capabilities including the Kh-31 Krypton
supersonic anti-ship missile.
China has already purchased 78 Su-27SK/UBK fighters and 76 Su-30MKK
fighters from Russia, and is building 200 more Flanker jets under
license from Sukhoi. The PLA Naval Air Corps will deploy the latest
batch of Su-30MK2 fighters.
The disturbing news from Beijing adds to recent bad news for the
U.S. Air Force. According to an unreleased U.S.A.F. report, the
F-15 Eagle - the most advanced U.S. fighter in service - is
inferior to the latest versions of the Sukhoi Su-30 Flanker.
The report covers a series of air-combat training engagements
earlier this year between Indian air force Su-30MKs and F-15Cs from
Elmendorf AFB, Alaska. The U.S. F-15s were equipped with the U.S.
latest long-range, high-definition radar systems.
During the air combat exercises the Su-30MKs and F-15 pilots were
seeing each other at the same time with their radars, but the
Indian pilots were getting off the simulated first shot with their
AA-10 Alamo missiles and often winning the long-range
engagements.
Flanker Beats Eagle
According to a Richard Fisher, a defense analyst and noted expert
on the Chinese military, the Chinese Flanker fighters can beat the
U.S. top jet fighters including the F-15 Eagle.
"Since 1992 the Pentagon has known that in a close-in dogfight the
Su-27 would smear the F-15. That year Russian Sukhois came to
Langley AFB and showed us their stuff. What we appear to be
learning from the recent exercise with India is that Russian radar,
weapons and more importantly, tactics, have all reached a level in
which the F-15 is on the verge of being outclassed in the
long-range engagement as well," stated Fisher.
According to a recent report by Fisher for the U.S.-China Economic
and Security Review Commission, the Chinese Flanker fighters are a
real threat to Taiwan and the U.S. Fisher's report raised early
alarm bells about the Chinese purchase of large number of the more
advanced Flanker - the Su-30 multi-role strike fighter.
"With the purchase of the Sukhoi Su-30MKK (Mnogafunctunali
Kommercial Kitayski-Multifunctional Commercial for China) the PLAAF
demonstrated that it had made a clear doctrinal commitment to
acquiring multi-role attack fighters capable of "joint"
warfighting. The Su-30MKK is the first PLAAF attack fighter capable
of delivering precision-guided munitions in all weather conditions,
and to use modern air-to-air weapons like the self-guiding Vympel
R-77 (AA-12 ADDER) AAM," noted Fisher's report.
"This upgrade program has the potential to rapidly increase the
number of multi-role fighters in the PLAAF, conceivably adding up
to 78 Su-27SK/UBKs and 200+ J-11s to the 100+ Su-30MKK/MKK2 multi
role fighters. The prospect of the later was formidable enough. But
the near-term prospect of nearly 400 Sukhoi fighters with ability
to launch active-guided R-77s and anti-ship missiles like the
Kh-31A on a single mission creates great pressure for a U.S.
defensive response. Such a force poses a serious challenge to
Taiwan's ability to maintain control over its own airspace as well
as complicating U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy plans to come to
Taiwan's defense if needed," states Fisher's report.
New Chinese Missile Superior to U.S.
Worse still is the fact that China is now developing an air-to-air
missile considered to be superior to the U.S. AIM-120 AMRAAM
missile. The self-guided AMRAAM is the main long-range armament for
all U.S. fighter jets.
The new Chinese Project 129 or PL-12 missile is a Sino-Russian
collaboration drawn from the Russian AA-12 Adder and equipped with
an indigenous Chinese high-power rocket motor. Unlike the Russian
AA-12, the PL-12 will have better performance than early models of
the U.S. AMRAAM missile. The PL-12 reportedly has a maximum head-on
engagement range of 50 miles and a maximum speed of four times the
speed of sound.
The PL-12 is now in the final stages of development, with test
firings against target drones scheduled for this year. Pakistan is
seen as the first export customer for the PL-12. The PL-12 has
alarmed U.S. defense sources who now consider it as the primary
radar-guided air-to-air missile threat against American and allied
aircraft.
The new PL-12 missile, once married to the advanced Su-30 Flanker
jets in the PLAAF, can dominate the skies over Taiwan and
eventually Asia. The U.S. F-15 Eagle, first flown in the mid-1970s,
is rapidly becoming vulnerable to these fifth generation
weapons.
F-22 Politics
The U.S. Air Force answer to the new threat is the F-22 Raptor. The
new stealth jet fighter is capable of dealing with both the Su-30
and the PL-12 missile because of its superior speed, agility, and
its ability to hide from conventional radars such as those on the
Su-30. The U.S.A.F. wants to buy up to 400 of the advanced stealth
fighters over the next decade.
"China's Sukhois are somewhat different from those sold to India in
that they lack the latter's new BARS phased array radar and thrust
vectored engines. But that's only slight cause for comfort, as
China is in the midst of upgrading its Sukhoi fleet to enable
carriage of the R-77 BVR AAM and attack munitions. Most co-produced
Su-27SK/J-11 fighters are so upgraded. This means that very soon
the U.S. air forces in Asia could be facing 200-300 multi-role BVR
AAM capable Sukhois in the PLA Air Force," stated Rick
Fisher.
"This trend was apparent several years ago and the tragedy is that
the Pentagon did not start sounding the alarm back then. As a
consequence an important chance to bolster political support for
the F/A-22 has been lost. Today there is still an unjustified
reluctance to publicly link China's growing Sukhoi fleet to a now
urgent need to produce the F/A- 22," noted Fisher.
The F-22 Raptor has become a political issue with the current
Democrat candidate opposing the stealth fighter. Democrat
presidential candidate John Kerry voted against funding the F-22 at
least five times, in 1995 and 1996.
Additionally, in 1995 Kerry supported a deep cut in the F-22 Raptor
by signing onto S. 151 "to reduce Federal spending by restructuring
the Air Force's F-22 program to achieve initial operating
capability in 2010 and a total inventory of no more than 42
aircraft in 2015."
In June 1998, John Kerry voted for the Bumpers amendment to the
U.S. defense funding for 1999 to drastically cut the F-22 program.
In 1998 Senator Bumpers (D. Ark.) repeatedly voiced his opposition
to the F-22 and offered legislation to cut the aircraft
permanently.
"We are buying all these fighters in spite of the fact that the
intelligence community and everybody who knows anything about an
airplane knows that there isn't a plane in the world - in France,
in Russia, in China - that is even remotely comparable to our F-15
and our F-18 and there won't be, the CIA says, for 15 to 20 years.
So what is the rush to judgment?" stated Bumpers in 1998.
The vote by Bumpers and Kerry failed, and the funding continued for
the F-22. The words of Senator Bumpers convinced others like
Senator Kerry and Senator Kennedy to consider the threat to our
pilots and our national defense would not develop for 20
years.
Six years later the threat is already flying. (continue)
