China Army Closing Tech Gap With U.S., Pacific Air Chief Says

China Army Closing Tech Gap With U.S., Pacific Air Chief Says

China’s military is closing the technology gap with the U.S., though the experience of America’s pilots still gives them an “unbelievably huge” edge, according to the Pacific Air Forces chief.

General Lori Robinson, in Singapore to attend the country’s air show, said she felt assured that Chinese pilots would act professionally in interactions with the U.S., citing a September agreement on rules of behavior. U.S. military pilots flying in the contested South China Sea have been warned over radio -- sometimes repeatedly -- by Chinese voices telling them to leave, while Japanese planes have been challenged in the neighboring East China Sea.

Since coming to power President Xi Jinping has prioritized modernizing the military with a focus on the navy and air force, as he seeks to project power outward and assert China’s claims to territory in the waters of the West Pacific. That has included greater spending on longer-range and higher-tech ships, planes and submarines, while the People’s Liberation Army has also focused on improving training and standards for its fighter pilots.

“The technology gap certainly is closing, there’s no denying that,” General Robinson said Tuesday in an interview. “The difference between that technology gap is the training that the United States air crew get. That training and the way our airmen work every single day, no matter what platform that they are on, and all the people that support those airmen to do that job. That edge is unbelievably huge.”

Fear mongering for more Pentagon Trillion dollar funding or should the West take a long hard serious look? I know that many of the smaller Countries in the immediate vicinity are concerned and have looked to the US for either military assistance or a show of support politically. The disputed China sea fiasco seems to be a potential future flash point as many here have already been saying for years.

I'm not entirely sure it's only a case of Fear and nerves when you have Countries such as Vietnam looking to it's former adversary "the US" for support. That alone speaks volumes of just how tense some in the region perceive the situation/potential threat to truly be at their front door or shores as the case may be.

Fear mongering defense funding or something to keep an eye on, time will tell.

I know the USAF felt the Chinese air force was rapidly closing the gap as far back as 06ish and expected parity within 20 years.

Least thats what was said in a brief when I was still active duty.

a reply to: Irishhaf
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the big thing in 05/06 that I was told was they finally threw away the soviet manual, and started changing their tactics to more reflect the flexibility that pilots in western countries have. Even 10 years ago we knew they were stealing secrets as fast as we could come up with them, so closing the hardware gap is just a matter of time.

a reply to: SLAYER69

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China is expanding their interest in south America and Africa too.

All that American debt to china...

mark zuckerberg show us the way of the future, learn Chinese

china will fall in matter of time. The country is really unstable and will face the fate of Soviet Union soon.

As far as playing catchup, all a competing country as to do is 'sit back' and watch other countries actually at war, recording tactics, emissions, results, capturing all that data (as well hacking it), building their reserves and keeping whatever secrets they have secure, until that day…

From what we've gone over in the aircraft forum.

China will eventually have some good stuff.

However they aren't there yet.

And it will take some time for them to catch up.

Given the rate at which the Chinese steal American technology, it won't be long before they're deploying that technology faster the US can build it.

-dex

Saying the gap is closing is true. It does not mean the gap is close though.