Source: World Wide Web WeChat public account
Video loading...
According to the "Theater" column of the US "Power" website on October 29, the US Navy's 12th Synthetic Fighter Squadron (VFC-12) recently posted a picture on social media showing that the tail of one of the unit's F/A-18 fighter jets was spray-painted with the logo of the Chinese military aircraft, rather than the traditional Soviet/Russian style red star.
This reflects the military turn of the United States to China, which it sees as what the United States calls a "pressing threat." Chinese experts believe that the U.S. Navy repainted the F/A-18 to imitate Chinese fighters and somewhat painted tiger dogs, but the move sends a provocative signal that the Chinese navy and air force are openly regarded as an adversary.
"Bumblebee" surprised the "Chinese military aircraft logo"
The article, titled "Chinese logo appears on F/A-18 'Bumblebee' of hypothetical enemy forces in the U.S. Navy," said the untitled image recently appeared on VFC-12's official social media page as part of a series of images of various awards and recognitions presented by officials of the unit. The commander of the VFC-12 issued a certificate to a sailor. In the background, the vertical tail of one of the squadron's F/A-18s can see the "logo of the Chinese military aircraft.". The unit is one of four squadrons in the U.S. Navy that provides training for hypothetical enemies. The "Theater" section reported last year that the VFC-12 squadron plans to apply a model of Chinese fighter paint to some of its new F/A-18E/F "Super Hornets".
A public affairs officer for the unit told Warzone that the aircraft in question was a regular F/A-18, but it was unclear whether it was the squadron's F/A-18E/F or an earlier model Hornet fighter. He said the VFC-12 squadron plans to launch a new spraying program to re-spray its fighter jets, which will also include those that reflect the various jets of Russia, North Korea and Iran, as well as the style of Chinese aircraft. In June, the squadron unveiled for the first time a new livery, the Super Hornet, Mako, intended to mimic the camouflage pattern that first appeared on Russian T-50 fighter jets (later known as the Su-57). Last year, VFC-12 provided it with schematics of three different spraying schemes, mimicking the livery of China's J-10, J-11/J-16 and J-15 fighter jets.
The U.S. Navy imagines the paint scheme of the "J-15" fighter of the enemy forces
In addition to the use of "Chinese military aircraft style" livery and logo, the armband worn by the commander of the squadron also has a significant "Chinese element". An awards photo released by the Theater of Operations in June showed the squadron's then-commander wearing an unusual armband. The armband is a yellow-rimmed red five-star in the background and a front view of an F/A-18 in the foreground. The color scheme of the red five-star is quite different from the red star used by Russian military aircraft, but it is very similar to the red five-star used by the People's Liberation Army. The five Chinese characters below the red five stars are suspected to be "sticks and stones". Some enthusiasts of domestic armbands believe that "sticks and stones" may have originated from Einstein's statement that sticks and stones would be used in World War IV. But the use of Chinese characters to express American culture is always more blunt. It is not clear what attitude the US squadron wants to express with this sentence, and it cannot be completely ruled out that the US Navy does not know much about Chinese culture, and uses a few Chinese characters to "make things mysterious."
Illustration of the report
Can you imitate my fighter?
Theater reported that the VFC-12 squadron had begun to resmitter some F/A-18s to reflect the characteristics of Chinese fighter jets. Even if there is no actual conflict, these Chinese fighter jets may be encountered more and more during the deployment of U.S. Navy pilots. On the question of whether the F/A-18 can simulate the tactics and tactics of the PLA fighters, Zhang Xuefeng, a Chinese military expert, told the Global Times reporter that tactics and tactics are often formulated for specific models, that is, to give full play to some of the advantages of their own aircraft and use their own strengths to defeat the enemy's weaknesses in confrontation. Aircraft with different performance and characteristics will definitely use different tactics. For example, the F/A-18 is generally considered to have better low-speed cornering performance, while the F-16 has strong acceleration and better energy retention, while the Mirage-2000 has a higher instantaneous circling angular velocity. Pilots will develop tactics based on the characteristics of these fighters and the characteristics of opponent aircraft, and use their strengths to avoid weaknesses.
Special camouflage suits for F-16 fighters
Judging from the reports of the US media, the US Navy has many PLA models to simulate with the F/A-18, and the characteristics of these models are very different, from the aerodynamic layout to the maneuvering characteristics to the airborne weapons, the difference between the F/A-18 and them is even greater. From this point of view, using the F/A-18 to simulate the PLA fighters and PLA tactics is really not the same. Moreover, if the F/A-18 fighter unit of the US Navy Combat Force and the F/A-18 of this hypothetical enemy force are simulated confrontations, to a large extent, it is an air battle between the same type of aircraft, and the pilots of both sides know the performance of each other's and their own fighters very well, which will be more disconnected from actual combat, so that the pertinence will be further reduced.
The U.S. Navy sent a red flag
Zhang Xuefeng said that an important reason why the US military uses the F/A-18 to simulate opponent aircraft is that the US Navy does not have much choice. At present, the U.S. Navy is basically only equipped with F/A-18 series fighters and F-35Cs, and of course, some small trainer aircraft. In the past, hypothetical enemy units of the U.S. Navy or Air Force often used light fighters to simulate Soviet/Russian fighters, such as the F-5 miG-21. However, most of the Russian and Chinese fighters in active service are medium and heavy fighters, and it is obviously inappropriate to use those light fighters to simulate. In previous years, the Air Force had intended to use early batches of F-35s for air combat countermeasure training, however, Congress blocked the Air Force's plan to establish an Intruder squadron equipped with F-35A fighter jets in the draft Defense Policy Act of 2020. Obviously, the U.S. Navy's limitations in finding hypothetical enemy aircraft in active duty aircraft are relatively large.
Of course, although the F/A-18 may not be able to fully simulate the technical tactics of opponent fighters, it is still useful for improving the technical and tactical level of U.S. Navy pilots. Because the level of these US military instructors is usually higher, they will confront them, and then review and evaluate the air battle through the air combat drill evaluation system, which will help the US carrier-based fighter pilots to improve the technical and tactical level of air combat.
Zhang Xuefeng believes that if the US Naval Aviation Corps previously regarded the Chinese Navy and Air Force as a hypothetical enemy and hid it, then the US Navy's move sent a provocative signal to the Chinese Navy and Air Force to openly regard it as its main air opponent, and it was also a move to cater to the relevant policies of the US Department of Defense. Theater believes that the U.S. Navy's move reflects the Pentagon's current view that China is now a "pressing threat" to the United States.
Source: Global Times-Global Network/Wei Qi