U.S force projection

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Horsesoldier RE:U.S force projection 10/9/2003 9:27:37 PM

So why are we attacking China in this particular scenario? Realistically, we're not going to attack China unilaterally (nuclear powers don't do that to one another), and China lacks the military force structure necessary to provoke us into action by doing something like attacking Taiwan, etc. All that said, how would the F-22 be rendered useless? In the unlikely scenario that we decided to invade China and march on Beijing or whatever, airbasing would not be a major issue as soon as the Marines, XVIII Airborne Corps, and US Navy seized a lodgement on Chinese soil.

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eightyone RE:U.S force projection 10/9/2003 9:59:56 PM

The two places you're talking about I assume are South Korea and Japan. Osan and Kunsan in Korea, and Misawa and Kadena in Japan, both are in range of Chinese mainland. With an air to air refueling "Tanker Bridge" Air Force assets could strike even from the CONUS. The same process was used to fly aircraft from the CONUS to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. I don't see how any of this would make the the F/A-22 or any other of our aircraft usless.

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kozmik RE:U.S force projection 10/9/2003 10:06:46 PM

its been said that it would be madness to invade china, you'd be facing overwhelming numbers. marines or not, the chinese spend more money on their marines than on any other land force they have. regardless of american technology a land invasion could only come after a couple nukes..now lets say taiwan and japan offered the only bases of operation withing the area. and take in consideration of U.S current occupation of iraq which'll not change for about 5 years or so. without proper support bases is the U.S still capable of attacked a nation in a hostile area? because i hear people preaching america can fight three wars at once and rumsfeld saying they can take on korea and iraq, which turns out to be wrong considering the numbers

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kozmik RE:U.S force projection 10/9/2003 10:07:31 PM

yea, we're attacking china because they wish to reclaim taiwan, there ya go, work with that

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kozmik RE:U.S force projection(eightyone) 10/9/2003 10:09:36 PM

i was also referin to traveltime, which will affect a pilots performance, first being moved to a base so far and then depending on the urgency being thrown into combat. and the numbers are overwhelming

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Varangian NUMBERS? WHO CARES? 10/9/2003 10:27:12 PM

Kozmik, you have this fetish with numbers. What's the big deal. Iraq had the world's 3rd largest army in 1991. Now they just play hide n'seek. China is desperate to avoid a confrontation with the U.S. Anyone who thinks China is a unified country is nuts. They don't all speak the same language, the religious minorities are in revolt, many provinces are governed by warlords who rule their own turf...the list goes on. As far as invasion sites, the friction with Vietname (historic), the Phillipines (maritime territorial), Taiwan (of course), Russia (historic and territorial), and Japan (paranoia), are just a few of our potential allies and basing areas, should the necessity arise. It won't however, because China is too vulnerable economically, weak militarily, and socially imploding. The greater danger within China over the next 20-30 years is a Civil War that the French would envy.

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eightyone RE:U.S force projection(eightyone) 10/9/2003 11:17:00 PM

The flight time from South Korea or Japan wouldn't be more than a few hours. As for flying from the CONUS as I mentioned before That would most likely be to relocate the aircraft to different bases closer to China. Like the aforementioned Japan and South Korea. The pilots are used to being moved around and having to fly combat missions. They did it in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Not to mention we already have fighters and everything needed to support combat operations in the Pacific theater. Although we did fly combat strikes from the CONUS into Iraq and then back again without any trouble, our bombers could strike from Guam which would make more sense. You're also forgetting our carrier based forces.

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