The US Air Force’s obsession with war against China was on display for the third day in a row yesterday at the Air Force Association conference in Maryland. Gen. Mark D. Kelly, commander of Air Combat Command, claimed that the U.S. is in “real peril” of losing a potential war with China if the Air Force cannot shed obsolete gear and rapidly regain a solid advantage in control of the air. “We have to focus our fighter force to the basic realities of a new threat environment,” he said, reported Air Force Magazine. “And that requires the fighter force to change to be successful.” Kelly said the joint force “requires Air Superiority” and doesn’t know how to fight or function without it, and so this mission area should get priority for resources.
China’s force structure and systems are “designed to inflict more casualties in the first 30 hours of combat than we’ve endured over the last 30 years in the Middle East,” Kelly said. As the Air Force inventory has aged and diminished, the balance with China has tilted more toward Beijing, he added. Kelly said that Russia has been able to annex Crimea and that China has claimed parts of the South China Sea “without firing a shot,” because contesting those situations has become harder, thanks to adversary air defenses.