Air and Space Power with Chinese Characteristics

Airpower Studies
Student’s Name
College/University
Course
Professor’s Name
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Air and Space Power with Chinese Characteristics
China’s Military Revolution
LT COL THOMAS R. MCCABE, USAFR, RETIRED*
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China’s Strategic Revolution
A quarter-century ago, China’s air force and its naval air arm—the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) and the People’s Liberation Army Navy Air Force (PLANAF)—were largely composed of, at best, short-range aircraft of an obsolescent design with minimal ofensive capability. China had no aircraft carriers, and its conventional missile force was largely short-ranged and inaccu- rate. Its nuclear force was small and composed primarily of unsophisticated land-
*Editor’s note: Signifcant portions of this article are based on material previously published in Lt Col Tomas R. McCabe’s China’s Air and Space Revolutions, Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, 2013, https://secure.afa.org/; and McCabe’s Keeping A2/AD at Bay: Te Imperative for Base Defense in the Western Pacifc, Mitchell Forum for Aerospace Studies, 2018, http://www.mitchellaerospacepowerorg/. Reprinted with permission.
based missiles. Tese forces were largely suited for a poor country with a military strategy primarily concentrated on territorial defense and deterrence of attack on the Chinese homeland.1
Tose days are largely gone, and the days of Western military superiority over China are ending if not already over. China has become a partially modernized economic superpower, and while their announced military strategy defnes itself as strategically defensive, it proclaims itself to be operationally and tactically of- fensive.2 China has conducted a massive—and continuing—program of military modernization, which has deployed much more capable systems that provide vastly more ofensive capability against targets in neighboring states. Functionally speaking, this program translates to a goal of military dominance of the Western Pacifc (WestPac) in what must be considered a strategic revolution in the region.
Offensive Air and Space Power with Chinese Characteristics
The Chinese have exhaustively studied the American way of war. Tey have concluded that it is immensely powerful but potentially brittle, meaning it has a variety of key vulnerabilities that, if attacked, could severely cripple or even col- lapse the entire system.3 Tey have heavily concentrated their strategy and systems to target these vulnerabilities. Since American military strategy is critically de- pendent on air, space, and naval powe...