US Air Force general describes how the F-35 would take on China's J-31 competitor

[F-22Raptor]

At a recent Center for Strategic and International Studies conference, US Air Force General and Chief of Staff David L. Goldfein laid out how the US would use F-35s to fight against high-end threats like China's J-31 or J-20 — and he made it clear that the F-35 could dominate.

At the conference where Goldfein touched on everything from space assets, to nuclear deterrence, to budgeting, a reporter from a Hong Kong publication and a reporter from a Japanese publication both asked questions about the F-35's role in the Pacific, where China has increasingly wielded its military might.

Asked specifically how the F-35 stacks up to China's J-31, Goldfein balked.

"I hope over time we can actually evolve our discussion from platform vs. platform ... to a network vs. network," said Goldfein, who denied that a single Chinese jet would ever face off against a single US jet.

"It's not about what the F-35, or the J-20, or the F-22, or the J-31 can actually do in a one vs. one. It's an interesting dialogue to have, but it's not very compelling because we're not going to ever have the F-35 in there by itself — ever. We do family of systems," said Goldfein.

Asked more generally about how the F-35 would perform in the Pacific, Goldfein gave an example of how an F-35B led 100 aircraft into battle at 2 a.m. at Red Flag, the Air Force's top-tier training event at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.

According to Goldfein, the battle doesn't start when planes see or detect each other as they did in generations past.

"The cyber campaign had been raging ... The space campaign has been raging" before the F-35 even gets into position, and the pilot is tuned into every development along the way.

By the time the F-35 pushes across the line and meets "the most robust enemy integrated air defense system we could put up against him," the F-35 has absolutely unparalleled situational awareness, and is primed to shape the fight to his liking from the outset, according to Goldfein.

The F-35 can maneuver forces against high-value targets, coordinate search-and-rescue for downed aircraft, and slam enemy air defenses all at once.

"He's calling audibles as the quarterback of the entire joint force based on the displays he's got in his cockpit and the fusion of information that he's getting from both in his cockpit and every other aspect of the network — that's the F-35."

At Red Flag, the F-35 absolutely slaughtered the competition, achieving a 15-1 kill ratio on other planes and elevating every single squadron it worked with.

F-35Bs, the Marine Corps variant, have already deployed to Japan. F-35As, the Air Force variant, will likely join later this year. In Australia, the US has sent F-22s and approximately 2,500 Marines.

http://www.businessinsider.com/us-air-force-goldfein-f-35-vs-china-j-20-j-31-2017-2

 

[nang2]

Sounds more like a sales pitch. Otherwise, why would someone expose his strategy/tactics?

 

[Globenim]

Soo.... wheres is the description?

Are they talking about him stating the obvious about the plane not going on to solo missions to confront China like in some masturbatory dreams on fanboys here? Or the assumption/hope that everything will be working perfectly fine with their electronics, communications and network?

 

[Arsalan 345]

China didn't make j-31 for fun.the network he is talking about may be airborne early warning aircrafts. China has already made vlraam with 400km range.this network must survive.I don't see this network nowhere near f-35 in case of war.China knows how important role f-35 is playing for USAF so they made it clear that they can take out those systems.vlraam is just one new thing.China has lots of things in their inventory and america knows it.

 

[Kiss_of_the_Dragon]

Good If that will make Americans more secure , Does Chinese general need to make similar assessment regarding J-20 and J31 in order to make Chinese feel more secure? I guess not we Chinese are willing to defend our nation with stone throwing as well as using hi-tech weapons for turkey shooting: J-31 and J20 might be inferior to the so claimed F-35, nevertheless it's still better than those vintages J-11s.

 

[The SC]

He is basing his comments on the US EW capabilities before any battle starts as well as the US networked warfare, but he has no Idea about the J-20 and J-31 capabilities, nor the EW and network warfare capabilities of China..
It is a question of perception no matter how rational he might be.. It is like someone being sure that a Mercedes can take on a BMW in any aspect, forgetting that the BMW can also do the same to the Mercedes, be it in speed, road handling capabilities, reliability and so on..

 

[gambit]

Nervous, guys ? Sounds like you are.

Goldfein did not 'exposed' any 'strategy' or 'tactics'. All he did was gave the general description on how the USAF conducts our concepts of air warfare, concepts that the PLAAF struggles to implement.

 

[Kiss_of_the_Dragon]

Nervous, guys ? Sounds like you are.

Goldfein did not 'exposed' any 'strategy' or 'tactics'. All he did was gave the general description on how the USAF conducts our concepts of air warfare, concepts that the PLAAF struggles to implement.

Nervous indeed, this should be good enough to justify Chinese military spending or should China increase more of the defense budget this year....

 

[nang2]

Nervous, guys ? Sounds like you are.

Goldfein did not 'exposed' any 'strategy' or 'tactics'. All he did was gave the general description on how the USAF conducts our concepts of air warfare, concepts that the PLAAF struggles to implement.

Chinese might not know what to implement before. now they know.

 

[Beast]

Nervous, guys ? Sounds like you are.

Goldfein did not 'exposed' any 'strategy' or 'tactics'. All he did was gave the general description on how the USAF conducts our concepts of air warfare, concepts that the PLAAF struggles to implement.

Looks like the US General is nervous about J-31 that he even need to resort to such petty talks to try convinced others of F-35. Put it short, he has no confidence in his product.

 

[jhungary]

Sounds more like a sales pitch. Otherwise, why would someone expose his strategy/tactics?

the general is talking about how F-35 will fight or will be used in a general concept, which is the reason why F-35 was made in the first place, he did not expose USAF tactics and strategy.

What he is saying akin to How a Machine Gun will be used in a war, Machine Gun will be used to iin down enemy in an open space so you can drop Howitzer and Artillery on the vertical edge. That is how machine gun works, did I expose how US Army fight or Tactics and Strategy employed by the US military by telling you how a machinegun works?

NOted that he is saying this is how F-35 take ON J-31, not how F-35 take OUT J-31. We all know F-35 is a network centric fighter even before they were build (it was one of the requirment for the tender) and the general would have said the same thing if the question is changed to How F35 take on EFT Typhoon or How F35 take on Gripen, or anything along the line of how F35 take on [Insert Aerial Platform here]

 

[gambit]

Looks like the US General Is nervous abt J-31 that he even need to resort to such petty talks to try convinced others of F-35. Put it short, he has no confidence in his product.

The article said he was asked, that meant the issue was solicited by someone else, so he answered in general terms, nothing specifics. So for you to interpret as you did, maybe you should examine your own nervousness. After all, your China have not contributed one iota to aviation since the Wright Brothers flew.

Heavier than air powered flight have been since 1903. The B-52 have been in service since 1952. That means the B-52 have been flying for half as long as there have been airplanes. And you think your PLAAF can beat US ? What video game is that ?

 

[Pepsi Cola]

Honestly, any real analysis of fighter capabilities requires pages and pages of writing. Anything shorter than that is really just some unsupported claims not worthy of being read and should be taken with a grain of salt.

 

[nang2]

the general is talking about how F-35 will fight or will be used in a general concept, which is the reason why F-35 was made in the first place, he did not expose USAF tactics and strategy.

What he is saying akin to How a Machine Gun will be used in a war, Machine Gun will be used to iin down enemy in an open space so you can drop Howitzer and Artillery on the vertical edge. That is how machine gun works, did I expose how US Army fight or Tactics and Strategy employed by the US military by telling you how a machinegun works?

NOted that he is saying this is how F-35 take ON J-31, not how F-35 take OUT J-31. We all know F-35 is a network centric fighter even before they were build (it was one of the requirment for the tender) and the general would have said the same thing if the question is changed to How F35 take on EFT Typhoon or How F35 take on Gripen, or anything along the line of how F35 take on [Insert Aerial Platform here]

there is a gray area between the specifics and in general. you are right about he talking mostly in general. but he would be telling nothing if it is completely in general. the emphasis and his choices of words will provide clues on how USAF would use F35 in actual combat. not only the actual tactics but also the logistic dependences. all these provide materials for Chinese air force to mimic and devise countermeasures. US is certainly confident in its superiority. that probably explains why this general would say what he said in public. you don't hear Chinese air force says anything about how they would use their birds, do you? Secrecy has its advantages in wars, particularly for underdogs, which US would never think it might end up being.

 

[jhungary]

there is a gray area between the specifics and in general. you are right about he talking mostly in general. but he would be telling nothing if it is completely in general. the emphasis and his choices of words will provide clues on how USAF would use F35 in actual combat. not only the actual tactics but also the logistic dependences. all these provide materials for Chinese air force to mimic and devise countermeasures. US is certainly confident in its superiority. that probably explains why this general would say what he said in public. you don't hear Chinese air force says anything about how they would use their birds, do you? Secrecy has its advantages in wars, particularly for underdogs, which US would never think it might end up being.

I don't know if you have read the article, and I don't know if the article is about all that the general said (Maybe the article is an extract and the general said more than he did) But for that article alone, it actually did not say anything we had not already know.

He first start by saying he want to get over this platform vs platform and want to specify Network vs Network, but what did he say indeed? We don't know, as he does not specify what network to what network. Maybe is the C4ISTAR or Network and Comm? He did not specify.

Then he started talking about it never about how F-35 or J-31 or F-22 or J-20 being one on one. It have something to do with "A family of System" so the F-35 is not going to be alone. But since he did not further explain what is a Family of System. Is it the F-35 Family? US Airforce F-Family Fighter? Again C4ISTAR (E-family aircraft) We don't really know what he had talked about.

Then come the next bits. He start talking about a mission in Red Flag, stating F-35 leading 100 other aircrarft into battle, but again, he did not specify the mission parameter, objective, requirment or any detail about that mission. Hence nothing really said there

And finally, he commented about F-35 being unparallel sitautional awareness, yet he did not actually explain how?.

Then he go on and talk about the general capability of a F-35, SEAD, SAR, Precision Strike and so on, things that have been said on the F-35 Bochure for years....

In fact, if you sum up what the article said, he actually did not say anything anyone could use. He is saying There are Network or Layer of asset and Resource (Fact that we already know), back up with a murky Red Flag exercise sitaution with out any detail, and F-35 being best at Sitautional Awareness (again something we have know already). In short, He did not say anything...

In short, he is being diplomatic, saying something either useless as we cannot verify the detail or saying something public have already known for year. Well, that is a press conference, he need to say something, right?