China-US arms race set to quicken as American air force chief ups ante
- US Air Force’s new secretary Frank Kendall seeking to raise spending on technologies that could threaten adversaries
- Chinese military modernisation is ‘moving faster than I might have anticipated’, he says
Frank Kendall, the new secretary of the United States Air Force, told Defence News Weekly in an interview published on Thursday that he would seek more spending in his budget to develop the next-generation technologies.
“The air force has been overly constrained … I think we’ve not been allowed to do things we really need to do to free up resources for things that are a higher priority,” said Kendall, a former Pentagon acquisitions chief who is well acquainted with military technology.
03:29
Nato says China presents ‘systemic challenges’
“I’ve been obsessed, if you will, with China for quite a long time now, and its military modernisation, what that implies for the US and for security,” Kendall said.
Discussing what types of technologies had the potential to threaten adversaries, Kendall pointed to programmes such as an F-35 upgrade that will increase its computing power and add new weapons and sensors, as well as the B-21 bomber, Defence News Weekly reported.
“And there are a few others like that that are coming down the pipeline,” he said. “But I think we have to be continuously thinking about other things that will be intimidating to our future enemies.”
With US advances in mind, China has kept upgrading its most advanced stealth fighter jet, the J-20, said Zhou Chenming, a researcher from the Yuan Wang military science and technology institute in Beijing.
“The Chinese military is looking forward to seeing what new toys American counterparts will develop – there is no motivation without pressure,” Zhou said. “The US wants to keep its air superiority, while China just needs to accelerate mass production of the J-20 for self-defence.”
US vs China: who has the stronger military?
Beijing started mass production of the J-20 in June. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) needs at least 200 “Mighty Dragons” in the next few years to counter an estimated 300 F-35s being deployed by the US to Japan and South Korea by 2025, according to Zhou.
Lu Li-shih, a former instructor at Taiwan’s Naval Academy, said the US Air Force’s upcoming Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter jet programme, which will replace the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jet as a multi-role warplane, should also be included among the “intimidating” US technologies.
“The US Air Force realised that its F-22 will be surpassed by Chinese and Russian next-generation aircraft,” Lu said.
As part of its modernisation to seek to maintain air dominance, the US announced two next-generation programmes: NGAD for the air force, and F/A-XX for the navy, a long-term plan to develop next-generation ship-borne aircraft to complement and eventually replace its F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters.
Macau-based military expert Antony Wong Tong said Kendall’s remarks indicated that the gap between the PLA and the US in aircraft technology was wider than previously realised, given that China had yet to deliver its next-generation H-20 stealth strategic bomber.
“Even China’s H-20 fails to compare with the US’ active B-2 bomber,” he said.
