China is producing fighter jets beyond its capabilities

Washington is facing two dilemmas right now. The first: during the Cold War it produced hundreds of planes of combat per year, with factories capable of maintaining industrial rhythms typical of a war economy. Today, those production levels are the exception rather than the norm.

The second dilemma It’s called China.

A structural problem. The United States faces a growing challenge in its combat aviation. The reason: its fighter fleet has been reduced more than 60% since the end of the Cold War and many of its aircraft have decades of accumulated service.

There is no doubt, although it remains a dominant air power, the combination of aging, operational wear and global demand is leaving to the system to the limitin the red and with a force that no longer has enough margin to respond to multiple simultaneous conflicts.

China and another scale. But the real problem is not only internal, but comparative: because Beijing is producing fighters at a rhythm that clearly exceeds current American capability.

With massive industrial expansion and projections of up to 300 planes a year Before the decade is out, Beijing is not only closing the gap, it is threatening with overcoming it both in volume and modernization, altering the global balance of air power for the first time in decades.

The F-35, insufficient pillar. The F-35 is the centerpiece of American air strategy, and not only as a fighter, but also as an information node capable of coordinating complex operations in real time.

However, its importance also exposes the core problem: there are too much dependency of a platform that is not being produced in sufficient quantities, which limits its strategic impact despite its technological superiority.

He can’t keep up. Under this scenario, while China doesn’t stop acceleratingthe United States maintains a rather irregular and insufficientwell below the minimum necessary to maintain the size of its fleet.

Annual purchases do not compensate for retirements of older aircraft, which progressively reduces operational capacity and generates gaps in key strategic areas, showing that the problem is not technological, but industrial and budgetary.

Modern warfare requires more than technology. Recent conflicts have demonstrated that air superiority does not depend solely on having better aircraft, but on have enough. The ability to sustain operations, cover multiple theaters and absorb losses is as important as the quality of the system, and in this area the United States is beginning to fall behind a rival that is betting by the scale.

The strategic decision for 10 years. In short, the global air balance is entering a different and critical phase in which the historical advantage of the United States is no longer guaranteed.

In fact, if production is not accelerated, the industry stabilized and the fleet reinforced with more F-35s and other systems on the way, the country risks losing its deterrence capacity. against China. In other words, the question is no longer whether the F-35 is sufficient as a platform, but whether there will be enough F-35s to sustain that superiority.

Image | US Air Force, LG Images

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