PLA aircraft expert Andreas Rupprecht estimates that the PLAAF may have more than 200 J-20s, based on the production numbers on some of the J-20s.

(Associated Press)

◎Fei Xueli (Richard D. Fisher, Jr.)

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its army, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), are using the biennial Zhuhai Airshow (China International Aviation and Aerospace Expo) to launch a two-tiered attack on Taiwan.

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After participating in the first two airshows in 1996 and 1998, the first level was obvious to observers: why the CCP allowed Zhuhai's ruling officials to fly to the airport only about 26 kilometers away from the much busier Macau International Airport. At the same time, build a second large international airport, but only about ten flights a day take off and land?

Zhuhai city government officials were not guilty of building some corrupt "boondoggle" (boondoggle), apparently convincing the PLA to give their city a large backup airfield to support future bomber and airborne raid missions as an eventual Part of the invasion of Taiwan.

The Communist Army’s Zhuhai Air Show Showcases Military Forces in an Attempt to Intimidate Taiwan and the United States

Although the opening ceremony of the Zhuhai Airshow in 1996 was mainly hosted by Zhuhai politicians and leaders of China's aerospace industry, subsequent exhibitions have increasingly demonstrated that the PLA not only supported the exhibition, but actually dominated it .

By 2006, the "transparency" of the Zhuhai Airshow was rapidly fading; it was already difficult for foreign media to get Chinese companies or government officials to talk about military aircraft, weapons, or space programs.

However, this is not important to the PLA, because they have become accustomed to using Zhuhai Airshow for a second level of threat: a large-scale visual projection of future military power, which can intimidate Taiwan and the United States-by 2014, Zhuhai Airshow has become a complete display of air, missile, space, ground and naval technology.

Now, as lifelong CCP dictator Xi Jinping may be about to push his "final solution" to strangle Taiwan's freedom, the new military system revealed at the 14th Zhuhai Airshow, held from November 8 to 13 , deserves our attention.

Most importantly, the PLA has demonstrated a more powerful air, ground and sea unmanned combat system on a large scale, and has achieved obvious success in beginning to integrate unmanned and manned weapons, which will be further improved with the development of artificial intelligence algorithms .

This success is due to the Chinese Communist Party's massive investment over the past two decades, which has spurred hundreds of state-owned and start-up companies to develop unmanned technology, NORINCO, the main arms producer for the Chinese Army, posted at the Zhuhai Air Show Perhaps the best example of this is a large-scale poster from the United States, revealing its concept of the "New Generation Army Brigade Combat Team" (New Generation Army Brigade Combat Team), which has been realized or is about to be realized.

Six of the ten battalions of this concept brigade force incorporate unmanned combat systems, such as unmanned battle tanks, small machine gun armed autonomous vehicles, unmanned aerial or helicopter combat air vehicles (UCAVs), or unmanned logistics support vehicles, And all support manned systems.

Equipped with a machine gun dog robot suitable for town sweeping

PLA media reports have revealed that Army units are rehearsing amphibious assault operations with the assistance of unmanned combat and logistics support vehicles, suggesting that this advanced concept appears to be gradually being rolled out.

Also in Zhuhai, two Chinese companies exhibited new four-legged dog-shaped robots equipped with machine guns on their backs, perfect for going door-to-door raiding Taiwanese resisting Chinese invasion.

Zhuhai Airshow also exhibited a variety of turbojet-powered unmanned combat vehicles the size of large fighter jets, such as the Feihong-97 (FH-97A) unmanned combat aircraft developed by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), which is an improved version for air combat The derivative version can act as a "loyal wingman" (loyal wingman) that is continuously enhanced by artificial intelligence algorithms, provide automatic escort for manned aircraft, or perform independent strike missions.

In addition, Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation (CAC) also exhibited its six.

The two-ton ultra-large "Wing Loong-3" unmanned combat aircraft can fly 10,000 kilometers across continents and has an endurance of up to 40 hours, which is very suitable for implementing blockades.

The four-engine UAV "Scorpion-D" developed by Sichuan Tengden Corporation (Tengden Corporation) can carry a .

Five tons of cargo.

China also exhibited a variety of small vertical take-off and landing drones that can drop grenades on ground troops, as well as a number of loitering munitions that can seek out and engage a range of targets, as Ukraine and Russia have, where advanced air defenses lead to In the event that the air force is unable to launch a combat operation, an "intimate" artillery barrage is provided.

All this indicates that the PLA will soon be able to form a joint unmanned force, possibly an unmanned tank supported by a dog-shaped robot armed with a machine gun. Unmanned fighters for reconnaissance and barrage missions work together.

One of the highlights of this year's Zhuhai Air Show is the first official display of the PLA's first fifth-generation stealth fighter. The famous "political" first flight took place on January 11, deliberately embarrassing the then visiting US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

According to the production number J-20, it is estimated that there are more than two hundred

Two years ago, in July 2009, in order to defend the fact that the production of the fifth-generation F-22A fighter jets in the United States had stopped at 187, Gates once predicted in a speech that China would "be there by 2020." There will be no fifth-generation fighters."

However, we can see the impressive stealth paintwork of the J-20 from the flight line in Zhuhai, and the PLA aircraft expert Andreas Rupprecht (Andreas Rupprecht), based on the production numbers on some J-20s, reported to the United States The media "Defense News" (Defense News) stated that he estimated that the Chinese Air Force may have more than 200 J-20 fighters.

Former J-20 chief designer Dr. Yang Wei told Chinese reporters in Zhuhai that there will be at least two variants of the J-20.

For the first time, a turbofan engine of a Chinese-made "WS-10" fighter jet, which uses a two-dimensional thrust vectoring system, provides the J-20 with the "supermaneuverability" (supermaneuverability) necessary for fifth-generation fighters ).

In addition, the People's Liberation Army also exhibited three new types of anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBM) in Zhuhai, which are capable of hypersonic (hypersonic) and maneuverable trajectory (maneuverable trajectory). The threat of ships is also very important for future invasions of Taiwan.

A few days before the opening of the air show, a "H-6K" (H-6K) bomber of the Xian Aircraft Corporation (Xian Aircraft Corporation) appeared in Zhuhai, carrying two new air-launched ballistic missiles (ALBM), which were said to be It is evolved from the second-generation short-range ballistic missile of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) or China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).

The type and range of these missiles have not been disclosed, but they may exceed 1,000 kilometers, and the PLA has about 125 H-6K/J/N bombers, and if one can carry up to four bombers, it is possible Launch up to 500 missiles at Taiwan and defending ships.

Also for the first time, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation exhibited the two-stage "Eagle Strike-21E" (YJ-21E) missile, and the China Aerospace Industry Corporation displayed the CM-103 missile, both of which use a ship-borne vertical launch system ( VLS) anti-ship ballistic missile, the CM-103 is apparently similar to the Raytheon Standard-6 (SM-6) vertical launch aircraft and missile interceptor adopted by the U.S. Navy.

In this way, more than 2,500 vertical launch "tubes" on Chinese naval warships may all become anti-ship ballistic missile launchers.

With Xi Jinping contemplating a near-term invasion of Taiwan, the response time for Taipei and Washington has been shortened, and the revelations at the Zhuhai air show show what the two sides should prioritize.

The U.S. is currently developing laser and microwave weapons, which may be delivered to the U.S. Army for field testing next year. The U.S. should quickly deploy these new types of weapons in response to the threat that the PLA may use large-scale manned/unmanned coordinated operations or even unmanned joint forces in the future.

To suppress the J-20, Taiwan needs to lease 30 F-35 immediately

However, an option that Taiwan can grasp more is to learn from Ukraine's experience and establish a large militia reserve force.

In Ukraine, hundreds of thousands of civilians have access to rifles, shoulder-fired rockets, and mines, capable of neutralizing small unmanned air and ground systems.

Most of the instructional training can be delivered via text messages and then organized into small community-based units, with weapons and ammunition stored at local police stations or other secure locations.

The People's Liberation Army's J-20 poses a direct threat to the Taiwan Air Force's F-16 fighter jets and E-2T "Hawkeye" (Hawkeye) and other electronic warfare support agencies.

Taiwan needs to immediately lease about 30 Lockheed-Martin F-35 fifth-generation fighter jets. On the one hand, it is to deter the J-20 from showing off its power. On the other hand, it is also because of the F-35's advanced long-range radar and infrared sensors. and data links that would allow Taiwan to continue to manage the fight with the PLA.

At the same time, to defeat and counter new threats from PLA air-launched and anti-ship ballistic missiles, Taiwan needs an ultra-long-range air defense missile capable of intercepting ballistic missiles, such as the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Defense (THAAD) or standard -6 missiles, destroying PLA bombers and ships before they can fire them.

However, in order to deal with the direct threat from Zhuhai, Taiwan also needs the U.S. Army to accelerate the development of the "Precision Strike Missile" (PrSM) with a range of up to 1,000 kilometers in the future, which has the ability to directly attack Zhuhai International Airport.

(The author Fei Xueli is a senior researcher at the American think tank "International Evaluation and Strategy Center". Translated by Chen Hongda of the International News Center)

◎Fei Xueli (Richard D. Fisher, Jr.)