Pentagon Intelligence #Fail
Posted on January 1, 2011Those big brains at the Pentagon seem to be losing their touch a bit – at least when it comes to the pressing issue of China’s military growth. Obviously with the economic contest between the USA and China powering away amid speculation that America’s crown is about to be nicked, the darker issue is whether China might be able to seize military dominance in the Pacific.
Unfortunately, the spooks who are meant to be keeping an eye on these things are apparently a bit, err, misinformed. here they were on January 6th:
China Stealth Plane still “years away” say Pentagon
And here they are with egg on their faces a mere five days later:
China conducts first test-flight of stealth plane
Oops…
Hattip to JM
Tags: #fail, China, Intelligence, Military, Pacific, Pentagon, Spooks, Stealth Planes, USA
Mark – it isn’t actually as straighforward as that (and I’m not in US military intelligence). It seems the J-20 didn’t actually fly – it performed a series of high-speed taxi, some with the nosewheel off the ground. There are other caveats. This is very much a prototype so production and service entry are potentially ten years away, probably at best: look how long the F-35 is taking. Also, the images suggest the stealth technology is nothing like as sophistiacted as US made aircraft already flying, such as the F-22. Finally, it is not a fully-fledged fifth-generation aircraft, making it at best no more advanced than the Eurofighter, which entered service in 2003 (and to put things into perspective, the first flight was in 1994). The Pentagon does admit it has underestimated the speed of Chinese developments, but at this point, as long as lessons are learnt, it is nothing like as serious as you suggest.
19.01.2011 11:01