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| F-35 Lightning Stealth Fighter |
By Wendell Minnick
TAIWAN — China's military modernization effort continues to drive defense procurement in Asia as Beijing develops fifth-generation fighter aircraft, procures Russian Su-35 aircraft, builds aircraft carriers, extends the range and punch of its ballistic missile force, pushes to dominate the South China Sea, and threatens to invade Taiwan and occupy the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
“China’s increased militarization of the South China Sea, and its growing animosities with Japan, are driving many in the region to think about procuring additional firepower as a hedge against a more powerful and aggressive China,” said Richard Bitzinger, senior fellow and coordinator of the Military Transformations Program at Singapore’s Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
China’s traditional numerical superiority is increasingly complemented by at least near technical equivalence with its main regional rivals, said Douglas Barrie, senior fellow for military aerospace at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
“The Chengdu J-10 and Shenyang J-11 and the Russian Su-35 will provide the basis of a capable fighter combat inventory in the 2020s,” he said. “Top tier air forces will face challenges and choices in balancing investing in platforms able to be operated in highly contested airspace or increasingly relying on standoff weapons and systems."
Regional responses to China’s bellicose behavior and North Korea’s erratic threats to develop missiles and nuclear weapons include midlife upgrades to F-16 fighter aircraft in South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, the development of new indigenous fighter aircraft, such as Korea’s KF-X program and Japan’s stealth X-2 Shinshin fighter, and upgrades of indigenous fighters, such as Taiwan’s Indigenous Defense Fighter.
Read the full story at DefenseNews
PacificSentinel Note: Unless things have changed in a major
way since I last looked, Australia, Japan and South Korea were all buying the
F-35A conventional take-off fighter, NOT the F-35B short takeoff/vertical
landing version.