US Assessment of PLA's Air Foce and Naval Aviation

choi

David Fulghum, Fragile China; Chinese military is spurred by technology, byt crippled by culture. Aviation Week, June 4/11, 2012.

Quote:

(a) "Any military conflict between Beijing and Washington would be decided by space and cyber supremacy. And if that fight is confined to a short period, perhaps a few weeks, during which China has a technical advantage, it could be the victor, say that nation's defense analysts and scholars." paragraph 1

(b) "'If [Chinese officials] feel an attack is imminent, they will atack first,' the East Asia specialist says. Factors involved in this 'active defense' demand a first strike that 'paralyzes the enemy, but does not annihilate them.'

(c) "But a pair of senior US Air Force officials, longtime veterans of the classified ISR world, later said that US military intelligence sees 'little movement away from a centralized control mind-set' that still stifles tactical innovation by China's aviation and naval forces.

"While a sharp, short conflict might succeed under certain conditions, there are cultural, training, logistics and maintenance problems embedded in the Chinese military that could make sustaining a conflict difficult, says the second analyst, a longtime intelligence official and senior China specialist.

"For example, there are scores of photos of China's new J-20 fighter design and technical assessments from multiple sources, but there has yet to be a single authoritative or even speculative article from either the US or PLA about the aircraft's missions. That apparently reflects confusion in beijing's long-term planning.

"'what are those missions--air-to-air, air-to-ground or anti-ship?' he says. 'Who will operate the aircraft--the air force or naval aviation, and what aircraft does it replace?' he adds.

(d) the last two sentences:

"Moreover, the last combat missions flown by the [China's] air force and naval aviation were against Taiwan in 1958. neither force flew any offensive air sorties during the limited conflict with Vietnam in 1979.

My comment:
(a) Quotation (b) serves the basis for excerpt in the window of print: 'If [Chinese officials] feel an attack is imminent, they will atack first'

The brackets--and its contents--are in the original.
(b) ISR is part of C4ISR.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C4ISR
(c) A photo caption: China's J-10 (above) and J-20 may both first serve with Chiniese naval squadrons since they will be best suited for maritime attack.

But
Chengdu J-10
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chengdu_J-10
(Primary user  People's Liberation Army Air Force, Pakistan Air Force; section 4 Variants: "J-10AH: Naval version of the J-10A")  
(d) there is no need to read the rest, which is insubstantial.