134:48, this is the comparison of the number of multi-purpose fighter squadrons of the US Air Force, which Mark Kelly, commander of the US Air Force, said in public. A review of the overseas military operations of the US Air Force since the end of World War II were basically carried out under the obvious quantitative advantage of our side. Whether it is Vietnam War or Afghan War , the US Air Force seems to have not encountered the problem of insufficient number of fighters . However, when the US Air Force faced Chinese Air Force , this problem arose.
Of course, the shortage of fighter jets is just one of the many problems that the US military has encountered in the Asia-Pacific region. For the US military in the Asia-Pacific region, the current problem is that in various war games in the United States, the People's Liberation Army can basically defeat the US military. So, how could China be so strong? The US military believes that this is because the local combat advantages give the Chinese Air Force and the Chinese Navy more obvious advantages in logistics support and technology.
India's Eurasian Times also reported on this situation, saying that in order to cope with the PLA's military advantage in the Western Pacific region, the US Air Force plans to build a "missile aircraft carrier", that is, the "rapid dragon" system. The system uses large transport aircraft such as C-17 to launch long-range anti-ship missiles and cruise missile to offset China's advantages in long-range anti-ship, long-range attack, long-range air defense and hypersonic missile as much as possible.
At present, the maximum range of the Chinese Navy's "Eagle Strike-18" supersonic anti-ship cruise missile has reached 540 kilometers, while the maximum range of the United States' "Harpoon" subsonic anti-ship missile is only 240 kilometers. The maximum range of the Chinese Air Force's PL-15 over-visual range air-to-air missile reaches 300 kilometers, while the maximum range of the US AIM-120D air-to-air missile is 161 kilometers. In addition, long-range anti-ship ballistic missiles such as DF-21D and DF-26 can block the US Navy's aircraft carrier battle group far away from the coastline, which further weakens the US military's naval and air combat power.
American Rand Corporation and the Center for Strategic and International Research (CSIS) and many military games deductions by the US think tank showed that under the current circumstances, the US military will suffer heavy losses, losing aircraft carrier and a large number of naval fleets. In response to this situation, the US Marine Corps and the US Navy have launched combat ideas such as the 2030 Expedition Advanced Operations Base (EABO), distributed maritime operations (DMO) and " Ghost Fleet ". These combat ideas are all used to enhance the combat capabilities of the US military through the distributed combat concept.
The "Quick Dragon" system proposed by the US Air Force this time is similar. The US Air Force can "gather" firepower in a short period of time through the "Quick Dragon" system to attack China's radar , long-range sensors and combat systems, weaken the PLA's long-range attack capabilities and create opportunities for the US military's next military operations.
"Quick Dragon" system intends to use C-130J, MC-130, and C-17 as the main vehicles, and directly drop the weapon pallets equipped with JASSM-ER long-range stealth cruise missiles like umbrella-injected materials. After the parachute on the weapon tray is opened, the JASSM-ER long-range stealth cruise missile will automatically launch and launch an attack according to the preset procedure. At present, Lockheed Martin of the United States has developed a similar weapon pallet. The MC-130 can throw a weapon pallet with 6 missiles and installed, while the C-17 can throw a weapon pallet with 9 missiles installed.
U.S. Air Force believes that if an aircraft can carry 3 weapon pallets at a time, and three transport aircraft successfully throw the weapon pallets they carry, the US Air Force will deliver 54-81 JASSM-ER long-range stealth cruise missiles at a time. It should be noted that the corresponding weapon pallet has been tested for live ammunition targets by the end of 2021. Theoretically, the possibility of implementing the "Quick Dragon" system is very high.
In fact, since the birth of the role of transport aircraft, it has been used to "drop bombs" from time to time. However, because it is not equipped with bombing sights like bomber , in the era of unguided weapons, the effect of bombing with transport aircraft is not ideal. The Russian army once used the Il-76 strategic transport aircraft to carry unguided bombs to perform bombing missions, but it can only be used without air defense weapons on the other side. Otherwise, slow-mobile transport aircraft will easily become the target of the opponent's air defense weapons.
The US Air Force's advantages in bombers have long been obvious, so when using giant bombs such as BLU-82/B, the C-130 transport aircraft was used to perform the bomb throwing mission. The C-17 strategic transportation also performs over-bombing missions, but it is not an air-on-air bombing, but rather carries the "Minister III" intercontinental ballistic missile to improve its survivability and range. The latter is actually somewhat similar to the "Quick Dragon" system idea proposed by the US Air Force this time.
For the US Air Force, the "Quick Dragon" system will greatly reduce the combat pressure of the US Tactical Air Force. Taking the C-17 strategic transport aircraft as an example, 27 JASSM-ER long-range stealth cruise missiles can be dropped in a single operation. The US Air Force's B-1B "Lavender" supersonic bomber can only carry 24 JASSM-ER long-range stealth cruise missiles in the built-in ammunition cabin without plugging in ammunition. The number of C-17 strategic transport aircraft is much higher than the number of strategic bomber of the US Air Force, and when necessary, the large fleet of US Air Force's aerial tanker aircraft can also free up the cabin position and join the "Quick Dragon" system.
Of course, there are many problems currently in the "Quick Dragon" system. The first problem is that a large number of transport aircraft are actually just "missile throwing aircraft". In order to ensure safety, missiles will be released from as far as possible. How to provide nearly 1,000 kilometers of guidance for these missiles has become another problem. After all, if there is no detailed target information, then these missiles will likely deviate. Therefore, for the People's Liberation Army, if it can effectively strike the US satellite or the US early warning aircraft , reconnaissance aircraft , and electronic fighter flying in front, it will greatly weaken the combat effectiveness of the "Quick Dragon" system.
The second problem, in addition to the limited long-range attack methods that are currently facing the US military, the insufficient precision-guided munitions are also a big problem. The US military has stated more than once that, according to the current experience of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the US military's precision-guided munitions will be consumed in a short period of time. In the case of insufficient number of precision-guided munitions, it is the best way to improve the use efficiency of missiles as much as possible, while the "Quick Dragon" system reduces the use efficiency of precision-guided munitions.
Take the Afghan War as an example. In 2019, the US military used a total of 17,423 different types of precision-guided munitions on the Afghan battlefield, and 4,729 were used in Iraqi and Syria . Together, the US military's single-day precise guided ammunition consumption is about 33.3. According to the "Quick Dragon" system, two C-17s can fire up precision-guided munitions far exceeding this scale, and are also more expensive JASSM-ER long-range stealth cruise missiles.
The third question is, the "Quick Dragon" system itself is not difficult to copy, and the Chinese Air Force can also copy this practice. Moreover, unlike the US Air Force's transport fleet that throws missiles while also taking into account the protection of the US military's "distributed operations", the PLA, which operates at home, can allow most transport aircraft to perform missile throwing tasks calmly. If they really want to fight for "quantity", the US military may not be able to gain any advantage.
So, I am not very optimistic about the "Quick Dragon" system. Because this combat vision is actually obtained at the expense of the US military's strategic air transport capabilities, and in the future Asia-Pacific military conflicts, strategic air transport capabilities are also one of the capabilities that the US Air Force must have. The "Quick Dragon" system can only be said to be an "emergency means", but in the end it will still treat the symptoms but not the root cause, and it will not solve the current dilemma of the US Air Force in the Asia-Pacific region.Of course, the Asia-Pacific region does not welcome the arrival of the US military. If the US military chooses to leave on its own, it will be good news for all countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
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