The United States Air Force was the undisputed number one in the world at the time. Since the establishment of its hegemony in World War II, the United States Air Force has experienced the Cold War and the "War on Terror" at the beginning of the 21st century. Until recent years, with China's full-scale rise, the United States Air Force suddenly discovered that its greatest military challenge was in the Asia-Pacific region, and as it faced increasing pressure in terms of distance, technology and numbers, the old tactics of the United States Air Force had completely failed, and it was even more helpless in the face of an increasingly powerful China.
From the perspective of distance, once a conflict breaks out between China and the United States in the Asia-Pacific region, China will always be fighting at home. United States has been operating in the Asia-Pacific region for many years, and although it has chess pieces and fulcrums such as Taiwan, Japan, and the Philippines, these areas are within the scope of the PLA's strike. Relatively speaking, the U.S. military is very strong in the rear, such as Hawaii, but far water cannot save the near fire. For the United States Air Force, a large number of fighters remotely support the Asia-Pacific theater, during which there must be tanker support. As far as the war in the Taiwan Strait is concerned, the distance between the mainland of United States and Taiwan Island is nearly 10,000 kilometers, and it cannot count on its military strength at all. And before the US military's new-generation strategic bomber B-21 becomes combat capable, the United States Air Force in the Asia-Pacific region does not dare to act rashly.
It is precisely because considering that the range of the current F-16, F-15 and even F-35 has become the biggest shortcoming, the United States Air Force is determined to develop the next generation of fighter NGAD, which mentions two alternative technical solutions: first, let the fighter itself have a large range advantage, and second, simultaneously develop a special stealth tanker, thereby ensuring the safety of military operations in the Asia-Pacific long-endurance. Leaving aside the technical difficulties in the research and development process of NGAD, the United States Air Force is currently powerless in terms of cost alone. It is reported that the design price of NGAD is as high as 250 million to 300 million US dollars, which is two to three times that of the F-22. You know, it was because the F-22 was too expensive that the United States Air Force decisively dismantled the production line. Now, it seems that NGAD is facing the problem of dystocia again. In this regard, United States Air Force Secretary Frank · Kendall proposed that if NGAD is to be promoted, the unit price must not exceed the F-35, which is obviously an unattainable requirement.
In addition to the pain points in distance and range, in the field of technology, the United States Air Force has lost its former glory. Since the advent of China's fifth-generation aircraft J-20, the United States Air Force has been overtaken by the Chinese side step by step in the field of fifth-generation fighters. It can be said that after the replacement of the domestic "heart", the performance of the J-20 in various fields such as detection, communications, weapons, and electronic warfare technology has comprehensively surpassed the F-35 and F-22. Especially compared with the F-35, which has constant problems and frequent air crashes, the J-20 is more stable, and it is still being upgraded and updated, coupled with the J-35 that is about to come out, the hundred flowers of China's fifth-generation aircraft are enough to keep the United States Air Force top brass awake at night.
It is worth mentioning that since the beginning of the Cold War, the United States Air Force has changed its basic operational thinking and is ready to give up absolute air supremacy. During World War II, even long-range bombers in the United States Air Force paid special attention to self-defense firepower, and even B-17 bombers had the ability to wrestle with Germany fighters. After that, with the P-51 fighter put into service, the air supremacy advantage of the United States Air Force was more obvious, and the German fighters were not given a chance to fight back at all.
Therefore, air superiority allows United States air power to quickly deliver firepower at any time and wherever it is needed, changing the basic guarantee of the ground battlefield. However, times are different now, and in the military confrontation with China, the air superiority of the United States Air Force has disappeared, which has caused a chain reaction. This is because the overall combat strength of the US military is based on air superiority. In asymmetrical warfare, all branches of the US military can run amok even if they do not have air superiority, but in the face of China, an opponent of the same level, the loss of air superiority is really equivalent to the loss of the tiger's fangs.
Now it seems that due to technology, financial and production capacity constraints, the NGAD project is becoming more and more difficult to advance, and the United States Air Force has less and less hope of rebuilding air superiority. Although the United States Air Force still hopes to try to establish some kind of "system operation" by adjusting the design direction and using various condensations, the process is too complicated and the technical difficulties of the design are too many. Therefore, at present, the United States Air Force not only fails in old tactics, but has not yet found effective new tactics, and can only mess in the wind and sit back and watch China's rise and overtake.