Originally posted by mr.bean
as for someone mentioning the “ring of steel” that the US promotes to encircle china, that is true to an extent. the US wants to contain a china threat this way but how effective this containment is working is another matter. because china does not stand still & let its interests be overtaken just because washington has a containment policy. in fact if we look at china’s relationships with its neighbours in all spheres, i would say washingtons containment policy is not working very well.

The US still has its cold war blinders on. China simply doesn’t act like any run-of-the-mill commie state. When you attempt to ring a “red menace” you’d expect the red menace to be isolated and economically retarded like the old USSR or Cuba.

It was therefore easy to get the paranoid commie state to spend its economy into oblivion.

China not only doesn’t spend much on weapons (compared to the old USSR) but is also the largest export partner of nearly all the main US allies in the containment ring.

American strength vis-a-vis China today is entirely unbalanced already. In the air, there is nothing in the Chinese arsenal (no, not even the 200 Flankers) that can match the F-15s or even Hornets flying off of American carriers.

The Raptor is simply massive overkill in relations to China. If they wanted to build it, they should just build it. China is hardly a good excuse.

Originally posted by Rick
That puts the total by the end of 2004 at 283. With a 2005 production of 30-35 J-11s that gets you to 313-318 by the end of 2005.

Perhaps from Sukhoi’s standpoint, it’s 300 considering the kits and assembled exports they on on their order sheet.

Anyways, if we take the 105 kits delivered as the figure for J-11s, there are still 95 more SKs in the 1996 deal unless there is a change in contract.

So would the Flanker numbers in China top out at around 400 after the current contracts are done with (which seems to me at current rate should happen before 2010)?

Originally posted by Vaiar
Why is this a “no brains” issue? Seeing China as a potential rival in the region doesn’t sound very stupid to me.

Look at the map. The US is not the same “region” as China. It’s in North America.

The above report is not even an Asia/Pacific Rim discussion. It’s about an US official using China as an excuse for the core US fighter project.

Of course, I’m not an illiterate crouton, mio amico 😀

Oops, you are right.

I remember I yesterday when I went to Au bon Pain (and sprinkled cretins on my chicken Caesar salad) that the flag there is the same as yours.

You are not a crouton, I beg your pardon.

Hand87_5, how come your profile say you are from Bayonne, France but your flag is Italian?

Are you intent on proving yourself a complete and unequivicable CROUTON?!

You are crouton! Only a crouton would think that cretin means moron.

I should think I would know French more than you.

Crouton.