Defeat, Not Merely Compete: China's View of Its Military Aerospace Goals and Requirements in Relation to the United States
Abstract
Over the past two decades, the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) has made rapid advances in building up new capabilities and operational concepts. Aerospace power has been a core feature of the PLAs rapid modernization. In particular, since 2004, the PLA Air Force(PLAAF) has pursued a service strategy aimed at developing the capacity to simultaneously prosecute offensive and defensive integrated air and space operations (, ).During this period, Chinese military authors have written about transforming the PLAAF into what they refer to as a strategic air force, one that can move beyond its [traditional] focus on air defense of Chinese territory and directly support national policy objectives and achieve a wide range of strategic goals.1 One recent study of Chinese military aerospace writings found that many PLA authors specifically cite the U.S. Air Force (USAF) as a model for at least some aspects of the PLAAFs transformation into a strategic air force.2
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 2018
- Accession Number
- AD1064033
Entities
People
- Scott W. Harold
Organizations
- RAND Corporation