By David Axe
But fighters don’t have to shoot down lots of other fighters to prove their worth if their worth is largely symbolic. Their mere presence, combined with the occasional dramatic demonstration of violence, can be adequate for a nation’s strategy. ‘It’s an effective deterrent,’ Larry Lawson, a Lockheed manager, says of the F-22. ‘People don’t want to come out and fight it. It tamps aggression.’
By the same token, the T-50 and other rival jets could serve to diminish the United States’ influence in the Pacific, inasmuch as ‘deterrence’ equals ‘influence.’ Russia and other potential users—India and China are obvious candidates—don’t have to buy lots of T-50s, or any other advanced fighter, for those aircraft to change the world. They just have to be capable of buying them.
That’s good for Russia, as actually building more than a handful of T-50s could prove impossible for its beleaguered defence industry. Russian industry has been so deprived of investment since the demise of the Soviet Union that it can’t reliably produce warships or military robots; Russia has begun importing these weapons from France and Israel, respectively. Indeed, 15 MiG-29 fighters Russia produced for Algeria were so poorly assembled that the Algerian air force insisted on a refund in 2008.
T-50 quality issues notwithstanding, the United States long ago seemed to recognize the potential for new fighters to shift power balances. In the mid-1990s, the T-50 was just beginning development. China, now said to be developing no fewer than three new air-to-air fighters, still relied on thousands of 1960s-vintage aircraft. The US Air Force at the time planned to buy more than 400 F-22s. Even so, the Air Force, along with the Navy and Marines, began developing the F-35, a fighter that could be easily exported because it contained far less secret technology than the F-22—and because the US would still control software and maintenance for all F-35s, owing to its ‘locked’ internal components.
The whole point of the F-35 was to sell it widely, giving the United States greater say over how its allies use their airpower. Today nine countries—including the UK, Australia and Canada—have invested in the F-35’s estimated $40-billion development. In exchange, they get rush deliveries of the jet once it’s ready for full-scale production, beginning in around five years. Other nations might also buy the F-35. Japan is studying the new fighter as a replacement for its Vietnam War-era F-4s. Lockheed estimates sales of more than 3,000 F-35s.
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Luke
“The T-50 is an unarmed, incomplete prototype” … so is the F-35.
Nate
Chinese defense policy in the 21st Century is looking much like US defense policy at the end of the Cold War: prod the competition into spending more than they can afford on defense, and win without a fight when their economy collapses as a result. Articles like this play along nicely.
South Indian
India is not a warmongering country. So when Indians buy weapons its intention is not threaten or intimidate any country.
Indians want to buy American planes to absorb some technology. It is buying planes from Russia to assure Russia that India is not going to be one of the allies like Australia or UK. India wants to be called a partner to USA and to Russia. Indians don’t like to be someone’s ally.
India will make sure that it does not give any impression that it’s getting Pro-American or Pro-Russian.
India is telling USA that it needs to transfer technology to have good business with India. If USA does not transfer technology it will be happy to get it from France, Israel and Russia.
USA should make sure that to have some influence on Indian geopolitics should sell India some of its Hi-Tech war machines.At the end of the day India wants to buy what it wants to buy, if USA sells India what India wants , USA can have a say in India’s future geopolitics.