What if Vietnam sign the intelligence sharing agreements with US,Japan and India? Have you consider this?
And what if Vietnam already buying sat imagery from paid services in Canada?
That's a likely scenario, and I don't deny the possibility fully. Unlike some VN PDFer on this thread, I never underestimate the capability of a potential opponent.
If you read my previous post carefully, I raised many questions to a potential case of SU30 successfully throws a guided bomb at a high-value target in Kunming. Satellite image is just one of the preconditions. If you don't read my post yet, let me paste it below again.
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To maximize the effects of this hightech stuff, there are couple of preconditions you need to fulfill. So please allow me to ask you some questions.
Safety of the airport: before the fighter takes off, you at least need to make sure the airport hasn't been bombed yet, or the damages caused by the bomb has been healed.
Command of the air: this is an aerial bomb. So if you want to use it to hit a target at Kunming, you need to fly through the head of Kunming and throw your bomb on top of the city. Before that, you will be challenged by China Air force J10, J11, or even J20. Even if you survived from the Chinese fighters, you still need to face with the ground units for air defense, e.g. the HQ-series missiles, or the flak. You also need to be cautious to the portable missiles used by infantry units, the VN PDFer @@Mokaman is a strong advocator of this.
A comparison between the two pairs: SU30/bomb vs. H6K/cruise missiles, must be interesting. The long-range cruise missiles (>2,000 km) equipped by H6K means that H6K could even launch the missiles on top of Beijing to hit a target at Hanoi. Zero riks for the H6K pilots!
Information transparency of the battle field: you obviously don't want to waste your valuable bomb at a normal target. An ideal target for your bomb is some high-value things, like air defense missiles units, radar stations, or command HQs. But the question is that these units are changing their locations constantly. So you definitely need battle field transparency! An ideal way for this is that you have your own satellite on top of the battle field. To achieve a 24/7 transparency, you even need to have 10+, or even 20+satellites! Because these satellites are moving constantly, they could only stay above a particular point of the earth for a short period of time. Do you still remember the MH370 tragedy? To find out the plane,
China changes the orbits of 21 satellites for day and night research in the South China Sea! But does Vietnam currently has all these necessary hardware for the guided bomb? No. It needs time, and tons of gold. So pay taxes to government.
BTW, want to share you a new toy of China. China recently launched a satellite for taking videos on the orbit. You can click the link below for a short video the CN satellite takes on top of Mexico. Could you understand the military meaning of the video satellite? It means Beijing could even be more clearer about the most recent locations of the VN army units than Hanoi!
There may be a short advertisement before the video, so be a bit patient please.
The new China video satellitte
Training for the pilots: training is a must-have even for the most talented pilot. To hit a CN target accurately, the VN pilots need to do real exercises for many rounds! Maybe 10 times? or 20 times? This brings us three questions:
- Bomb inventory: do you have sufficient bomb inventory to support the heavy training? Or can you make it on your own? If the answer is NO, pls pay taxes to government to enhance the inventory from imports.
- Spare parts inventory: the more you fly your SU30, the heavier maintenance required, which will lead to heavier consumption of the spare parts. Do you have sufficient spare parts inventory to support the heavy training program? Do you have the capability to produce the parts? For example, the braking pads of the landing gear, a very basic element, could you produce it on your own? Or you have to dependent on imports? If the answer is the latter, pls pay taxes to your government.
- SU30 life cycle: the Russian fighters, compared to their western peers, e.g. F15, are born with very short life cycle. Take the SU27 China imported from USSR/Russia in 1990s' as an example, its designed lifecycle is just about 2,000 hours. So if you fly the plane 200hours a year, it could only last for 10years! This used to be an extreme headache for China Airforce, but later we conquered it successfully via:
life cycle enhancement program for the old SU27 fleet. This is not an easy task. It needs the efforts from both aviation industry and material industry. To make it done, you need to be: a) extremely clear of the design principal of the fighters; b) a guru on fatigue mechanics, otherwise you even couldn't know where the weakest point is; c) a guru on high strength/light weighting material. You need to own all the three points mentioned to launch a successful life cycle enhancement program. Does VN have them now? If the answer is no, VN needs to pay heavily to foreign companies for the program. So, pls pay taxes to your government.
J11 localization: compared to the life cycle enhancement of the old fleet, J11 localization is obviously a more fundamental solution! We therefore no longer need to worry about the balance of usage vs. lifecycle. We could fly the birds as heavily as we want! But is Vietnam capable of this? No. So your government needs to pay Russia constantly for the fleet renewal. Again, it is you time for paying taxes!