The Diplomat: U.S. Eyeing Asian Arms Race?
T-50. Photo via APA.
by DAVID AXE
It was dubbed by some defense analysts as a “game-changer.” Earlier this year, Russia’s newest fighter aircraft rolled down a runway in the country’s Far East for its 47-minute debut flight.
The 72-foot-long, twin-engine T-50 fighter bears a striking resemblance to the U.S. Air Force’s F-22 Raptor, widely considered the most lethal air-to-air fighter aircraft ever produced — so lethal that U.S. law prohibits its export. Yet the United States is buying just 187 F-22s, in order to husband resources for buying larger numbers of the smaller and less powerful F-35 fighters.
The problem, according to two Australian defense analysts, is that in the absence of more F-22s, other U.S. aircraft and ground and naval forces could be “slaughtered en-masse in a shooting war” by enemy T-50s.
The result, suggest Peter Goon and Carlo Kopp writing for the think-tank Air Power Australia, would be no less than a fundamental shift in the strategic balance, as decades of U.S. military superiority crumble — all due to the advent of single weapon systems.
The only solution, Goon and Kopp contend, is for the United States to cancel the F-35, develop a new version of the F-22, and sell the new “Raptor II” to its closest allies, including Japan and Australia. In other words, initiate a regional arms race.
This assessment might seem alarmist, but it’s one shared by lawmakers, military officers and industry officials from the United States and its allies, especially in the Pacific.
High-tech planes, high-stakes posturing, high rhetoric. Welcome to the world of fighter-jet diplomacy. It’s a world where appearances matter as much as substance.
Read the rest at The Diplomat.
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