Let’s Pretend: What Happens If the US and China Clash in the Pacific?
SputnikNews.com
19.09.2015
As the United States continues provocative actions the South China Sea, it’s worth asking: What would happen in a hypothetical military confrontation between Washington and Beijing? A new report from the nonprofit RAND Corporation compares the capabilities of the two countries in 10 separate fields.
The recently released 430-page report written by 14 scholars on military strategy focuses strictly on military might. Ignoring political policy issues, “US-China Military Scorecard: Forces, Geography, and the Evolving Balance of Power, 1997-2017” considers two hypothetical scenarios – a Spratly islands campaign and a Chinese invasion of Taiwan – to gauge which side would win.
Chinese Air Base Attack
While the Chinese military had only a handful of short-range ballistic missiles in 1997, that number has now risen sharply. With nearly 1,400 in Beijing’s arsenal, those missiles could easily cripple the Kadena Air Base, a US installation on the island of Okinawa.
“Committed attacks might close a single base for weeks,” the report reads, and that could dramatically increase the distance that the US Air Force would be required to travel. Forcing the US military to operate out of Alaska, Guam, or Hawaii could give China more time to react to offensive maneuvers.
US vs. Chinese Air Superiority
The Rest…HERE
