And if a crisis involving Taiwan built up, how many US cruise missiles would be pointing at Chinese airfields?

(GD did a some fascinating work around 1980 to assess the degree to which US cruise missile strikes against Warsaw Pact airfields would have blunted Warpac tactical air power. Alas, my copy has long been scrapped, so I can’t give details.)

Another point to remember is that those Chinese cruise missiles rely on satnav for mid-course guidance. If this were to be jammed or spoofed by US navigation-warfare measures, the missile’s ability to locate its position when it finally made landfall would be degraded.

Even if America shoots 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Chinese airfields, over 900 of those would be destroyed by Chinese air defense including HT-233 long range phased array radars and HQ-9 long range air defense missiles which have many times the speed of Tomahawks, and ZBL-09 6 barreled phased array radar guided mobile anti aircraft guns

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UNSC sanctions forbid Iran to acquire offensive weapons like combat aircrafts, among many other things.

This is in effect only during the time when Iran develops nukes. After that, they would recognize Iran as a nuke power and sanctions would vanish.

Iraq pays for its weapons purchases from its own money. In fact the US “aid” to Iraq was mostly spent on US “security contractors”… with actual spend in Iraq being less than 1% of the damage that the US did to Iraq.

The government of Syria is led by an Alawite who are, in terms of “faith” considered to be something called “ghulat” and thus not shia nor sunni (they are in fact one of the “hidden” faiths who publicaly espouse belief in Islam in order to protect themselves from the oppression of muslims). This is something they share with the Yezidis and Druze among other small religious groups in the region.

Iraq already operates “hardware” from many many countries… continuing a LEGAL REQUIREMENT in Iraq set in 1937 when the British briefly cut military supplies to Iraq… following that event Iraq started buying weapons from Italy and USA… and since then they have ALWAYS purchased weapons from multiple sources as a STATE POLICY.

I don’t think Iraq has the money to buy hardware. I believe American taxpayers are paying for the Apaches. US foreign policy is to aid these countries with free hardware. Syria is an enemy of Israel. Iraq is an enemy of Israel. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. :p

thickening the plot….

the US will sell 24 Ah-64 apaches to Iraq and will supply 6 loaned helicopters to Iraq in the interim by Q4 2013.

Paid for by American taxpayers, as usual, as part of an aid package. These helicopters will be used to back the Shia government of Syria and kill terrorists in Syria. :eagerness:
So in other words, Iraq will operate both American and Russian hardware?

That’s why the Chinese haven’t invaded Taiwan by now and only get irritated if Taiwan starts muttering about independence.

China has hundreds if not thousands of CJ-10 cruise missiles pointed at Taiwan. How many Patriot air defense missiles does Taiwan have? Say bye bye to all those airfields within hours of war. But let’s hope it doesn’t ever come to that. :applause:

er, no, the energy depletion will reduce the intensity of the signal (the whole purpose of the RAM paint) but won’t change the wavelength as such

Radio waves travel at the speed of light. What does it mean by reduced energy? :confused:

An F-15 weighs 28,000 pounds empty. An F-22 weighs 43,340 pounds empty. An F-22 thus has a much larger gravitational signature than an F-15. Anyone know which of the two has a larger infrared signature at cruising speed?