China 'likely' training pilots to target US, Pentagon report says

[DonViejo]

Source: CNN



By Ryan Browne and Ben Westcott, CNN

Updated 11:39 PM ET, Thu August 16, 2018

Washington (CNN)China is actively developing its fleet of long-range bombers and "likely" training its pilots for missions targeting the US, according to a new Pentagon report.

"Over the last three years, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has rapidly expanded its overwater bomber operating areas, gaining experience in critical maritime regions and likely training for strikes against US and allied targets," the report said.

The "Annual Report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China" is a US government report mandated by Congress, which details Chinese military developments over the previous year. This year's report also claims that China is pursuing a nuclear capability on its long-range bombers, saying the Chinese air force "has been re-assigned a nuclear mission."

"The deployment and integration of nuclear capable bombers would, for the first time, provide China with a nuclear 'triad' of delivery systems dispersed across land, sea, and air," the report said.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/16/politics/china-military-mission-targeting-us/index.html

[beachbum bob]

1. duh

countries have air force to have defensive and offensive capabilites

[SWBTATTReg]

2. I imagine we're doing the same thing...

Anybody that's smart and ahead of the game in defensive strategies would be doing all sorts of scenarios and the like, in preparing our country for the unthinkable.

[Sinistrous]

5. The US has had a nuclear

“triad” for decades.

[pangaia]

3. I really don't think pilots need much training to do this. Like maybe 30 minutes, tops.

[GeorgeGist]

4. Thanks, Trump.

[Nitram]

6. Bombers have a great distance to cover flying from China to the US.

Bombers are pretty easy targets. Doesn't sound like a very good strategy to me.

[Joe Chi Minh]

9. So, unlikely to be true.Why bother - with their hypersonic, unstoppable

ICBMs. I don't think it's just Russia that has them. The Chinese are anything but a back-number in science and technology. Sounds like their well-known pragmatism gives them an ideal start. And their Communism would surely have provided the people, not just the elite, with a every opportunity for an excellent, perhaps, the best education available, 'this side of the black stump'. (To use an Ozyism)

[Blue_Tires]

7. Meh... The F-22A Raptors will mop the floor with them

[soryang]

8. Clearly the US containment strategy for China is problematic

This article exaggerates the nature of the Chinese military "threat." We are operating from a forward area in western pacific region with powerful naval, air and ground forces, and a string of military bases to contain and oppose if necessary Chinese traditional areas of influence, commerce and expansion. Their military is oriented to opposing our forces in the western pacific and indo pacific.

US strategic bombers, nuclear submarines, and warships operate in the Western Pacific, Sea of Japan, East China Sea, and South China Sea, etc., on a regular basis. These patterns have been modified to some extent in northeast Asia because of the Korean crisis. The Chinese clearly need to modernize and upgrade their antiquated long range aviation capabilities. To say that the modernization program is aimed at striking the US as the headline suggests is somewhat misleading.

[Bayard]

10. The Space Force Will Take Them Out!!