If we started flying with giraffes strapped to the wings for training, I’d bet good money the Chinese would do it too in a few years. That said, they have come a long way in the last decade, and will certainly be a relative peer in the years to come.

Are you saying that China marches in lock step with American developments?

The Chinese air force is in a reactive mode. That is they are reacting to concepts of modern air-to-air combat as developed by potential enemies they may face in the future. Possibly in the near future. The question is can they achieve some parity with those air forces they might face in the future? Those forces include the Japanese Self Defense forces, the air forces of Vietnam and those of India. China is in a tough place.

The Y-20 is a remarkable achievement given the state of China’s aerospace industry 20 years ago, when it was inconceivable that they could put something in the air weighing more than 100 tons. It’s also a remarkable achievement because it fills a critical gap in the PLA’s logistical capabilities. For a country as large as China, with its military needs and aspirations, having heavy lift capability is vital, and it’s far better to depend on your own indigenous design to supply that need than to depend on another country. Finally, being able to demonstrate that they can design their own heavy weight aircraft opens potentia doors in commercial aviation.

Okay. I figured that the yardstick was internal

Congratulations, another remarkable achievement of the chinese aerospace industry. Perhaps this will be the chinese decade in aviation ? ( Y-20, J-20, J-21 and others, Z-10 and other helos, UCAVs etc etc.:)

Remarkable achievement as compared to what standard?

The thing I don’t get is that it all seems to be staged in an attempt to appear all Top Gun-cool. Look at the greens for example, mimicking the way the USN green jersey catapult crew would wait for launch and then quickly head up to the cats to do their thing (like placing slot buttons for cat 3 and so on). They even got the cool ready-to-sprint stance down.

I find this hilarious. 😀 Just having a rainbow crew is a pretty sound idea though, I mean, anything that aids organization is a good thing. But why this outright carbon copy, even implementing deck officers that serve no actual purpose on this type of carrier?

It sort of reminds me of the time when European nobility would send off sketches of porcelain designs to China to have them make it. Legend has it that they’d even replicate coffee stains and such, if they were on the sketches. And this is no joke but I know of occasions were people have ordered electronical components from China where they’d specify acceptable fault rates in fractions or percentages and the Chinese suppliers would actually include faulty components corresponding to the order specs.

😀

You noticed this too? Thanks for pointing out these details out for the rest of the viewers