06-16-2022, 01:11 PM
OK, let's look at EB's suggestion that China could invade Australia by landing paratroops.
The Chinese airforce has the Y-20 transport, a knock off of the C-17 Globemaster but with dodgy, underpowered turbofan engines that render it unreliable and underpowered in comparison to the C-17. The Y-20 can transport around 200 paratroops or one Type 99 tank (roughly equivalent to the Leopards that we scrapped around ten years ago). The Y-20 would have to land on a suitable airstrip in order to unload its tank. The Y-20 has a range of just under 8,000km, meaning that they could reach northern Australia, drop their paratroopers, then crash into the sea on the way home.
China's J-20 "fifth generation" fighter jet has serious problems with its engines and cannot carry the weapons or perform the operational tasks the Chinese were hoping for. That means that the Y-20s, on their suicide paratroop delivery mission would have no protection and would be defenceless against our Super Hornets, Growlers and F-35s. Even if some paratroops managed to land, they would lack heavy weapons and would be slaughtered by our integrated infantry and armour battle groups.
An amphibious assault would probably have a slightly greater chance of success but only if it was protected by air superiority. China's aircraft carrier could not provide that in the face of threats from our far more sophisticated surface warships, submarines and land-based aircraft.
China has massive armed forces but, like Russia, they spend a fraction of what the USA invests in its military. Chinese military hardware is almost exclusively cheap copies of Russian weaponry and is decades behind western military technology. More importantly, their command and control is stuck in the quagmire that is the Chinese Communist Party. Political extremism may suppress a population but it doesn't have the innovation and free thinking that wins wars.
Of course, China could obliterate us with nuclear weapons but why would it do that and face nuclear obliteration from the our allies, defence partners and its long term opponents?
A conventional warfare attack on Australia is beyond China's capacity. The greatest threat China poses to Australia, apart from shutting down markets, is cyber warfare and we should be savvy enough to counter that.
The Chinese airforce has the Y-20 transport, a knock off of the C-17 Globemaster but with dodgy, underpowered turbofan engines that render it unreliable and underpowered in comparison to the C-17. The Y-20 can transport around 200 paratroops or one Type 99 tank (roughly equivalent to the Leopards that we scrapped around ten years ago). The Y-20 would have to land on a suitable airstrip in order to unload its tank. The Y-20 has a range of just under 8,000km, meaning that they could reach northern Australia, drop their paratroopers, then crash into the sea on the way home.
China's J-20 "fifth generation" fighter jet has serious problems with its engines and cannot carry the weapons or perform the operational tasks the Chinese were hoping for. That means that the Y-20s, on their suicide paratroop delivery mission would have no protection and would be defenceless against our Super Hornets, Growlers and F-35s. Even if some paratroops managed to land, they would lack heavy weapons and would be slaughtered by our integrated infantry and armour battle groups.
An amphibious assault would probably have a slightly greater chance of success but only if it was protected by air superiority. China's aircraft carrier could not provide that in the face of threats from our far more sophisticated surface warships, submarines and land-based aircraft.
China has massive armed forces but, like Russia, they spend a fraction of what the USA invests in its military. Chinese military hardware is almost exclusively cheap copies of Russian weaponry and is decades behind western military technology. More importantly, their command and control is stuck in the quagmire that is the Chinese Communist Party. Political extremism may suppress a population but it doesn't have the innovation and free thinking that wins wars.
Of course, China could obliterate us with nuclear weapons but why would it do that and face nuclear obliteration from the our allies, defence partners and its long term opponents?
A conventional warfare attack on Australia is beyond China's capacity. The greatest threat China poses to Australia, apart from shutting down markets, is cyber warfare and we should be savvy enough to counter that.
“Why don’t you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don’t you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don’t you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?” Oddball