Quote Originally Posted by carl View Post
It won't have to be in their own littoral. The Chinese said the J-20 can get to Guam (I assume back too). If it can do that it can threaten air routes to Taiwan, northern Philippines, all of Vietnam and more. We depend on transports and tankers not being threatened and if they are I don't know what we would do. There aren't enough F-22s to protect all that space.
Line of sight distance from the Chinese airfield to Guam is about 1800 miles. They would realistically need more like 2000 miles to avoid flying directly over Taiwan. Conceivable? Yes. Likely? No. Consider that the F-111, originally designed as a long-range interceptor, had a combat radius of about 1300 miles.

Secondly, F-22's don't need to protect every inch of airspace. Chinese fighters can't simply interdict air-routes willy-nilly at those ranges - they need some kind of intelligence or queuing from radar, or something. It's not like we'd be twiddling our thumbs while the Chinese launch their aircraft to intercept.




I'm am not concerned about fielding a superior force, I'm concerned about not fielding a force that can match the J-20s capabilities. F-35s and the latest iteration of the 70s forever fighter, the F-18, aren't going to be able to deal with that thing I fear. F-84s vs. MiG-15s redone, with no Sabres to the rescue.

We don't know the J-20's capabilities. We don't know when, if ever, it will reach IOC, much less be fielded in significant numbers. We don't know how many the Chinese would ultimately build. The claim that we can't field a force that can match the J-20 is a bit premature considering the J-20 isn't fully developed (much less deployed), has unknown capabilities, etc.

Plus, there is more than one way to skin a cat - ie. kill the aircraft on the ground, blind the aircraft by taking out C2 and GCI systems, etc. There is a lot more to winning an air campaign than a simple comparison of airframes.