hello everyone today we'll show you five US weapons that China should fear as a superpower
the United States is maintained a formidable technologically advanced military for decades
while the Chinese weapons highlighted last week were often designed with the United
States in mind none of the weapons this week were explicitly designed to fight China in fact many
of the weapons featured here were first designed during the Cold War and predate China's military
rise again it's important to point out that the chances of war between the United States
and China are remote there's too much advantage for both countries in maintaining the status
quo of a strong economic relationship roughly 500 billion dollars in bilateral trade and cordial if
stiff diplomatic ties a war would be a political economic and military disaster for both sides so
here are five American weapons of war China should fear number one ford-class aircraft carriers
since the end of the Second World War the aircraft carrier has been the symbol of American power
projection American carriers typically displace up to a hundred thousand tons fully loaded the
embarked carrier airwing typically includes four squadrons of f-18 see Hornet or f-18 EF super
hornets strike fighters up to fifty two aircraft total four or five ea-6b prowler or ea-18g growler
electronic warfare aircraft approximately a dozen mh-60 seahawks a pair of c2 Greyhound
carrier on board delivery aircraft the Ford class America's latest class of aircraft carriers the
first of which is set to join the US Navy in 2016 is the weapons system China fears most the mix of
aircraft on board a carrier make it capable of a wide variety of missions including air superiority
land attack anti-ship and anti-submarine warfare modern aircraft carriers represent a threat not
only to Chinese naval and air forces away from China but could strike China itself aircraft
carriers such as the USS Ford are also visible reminders of Chinese technological inferiority
from the nuclear reactors to electromagnetic catapult systems designed to hurl aircraft
into the air to the integrated anti-air warfare system American carriers represent a showcase
of technologies that China hasn't mastered last summer while China was proudly certifying its
first pilots and deck crew to operate from the carrier Li onon the historic event was undercut by
news of an American x-47b unmanned drone landing for the first time on the carrier USS George Bush
American aircraft carriers are symbols to China of American intrusion into its sphere of influence
in 1996 in response to Chinese missile launches near Taiwan the USS Nimitz and USS independence
carrier battle groups were sent into the Taiwan Strait there was nothing the Chinese military
could have done to prevent the carriers from entering the Strait this humiliation deeply
affected Chinese thinking and was almost certainly the impetus for the development of weapons such as
the D F 21 D ballistic missile or a SB M number two f-22 Raptor the f-22 Raptor is currently the
only operational fifth-generation fighter in the world a stealthy single-seat fighter with ground
attack reconnaissance and electronic warfare capabilities the f-22 is capable of cruising
at mach 1.8 to twelve hundred twenty miles per hour without afterburner the f-22 carries up to
two m9x short-range and six aim-120 medium-range anti-aircraft missiles in the fighter role and
can carry precision guided air-to-ground weapons in the ground attack role China fears the f-22
because there's nothing like it in China's arsenal for the foreseeable future the f-22 will dominate
the air environment wherever it's said China's existing fighters the indigenous j10 and various
derivatives of the su-27 flanker design j11 j16 su-30mkk are not stealthy and in a beyond visual
range battle would be at a disadvantage against the f-22 in a shooting war the f-22 Raptor could [
__ ] the People's Liberation Army Air Force plath by stripping away support aircraft that allowed
Chinese fighters and bombers to fly long distances f-22s could evade chinese combat air patrol sweeps
and engage airborne early-warning AAW aircraft such as the KJ mm and midair refueling aircraft
such as the Zeon h6 Chinese aircraft would then be limited to whatever fuel they can carry and
Chinese early warning coverage would be limited to mainland radar installations the ground attack
and electronic warfare capabilities of the f-22 would also pose a problem for the PLA AF the F
twenty-twos ability to evade radar in route to bombing targets on the ground makes it a platform
that can likely penetrate China's air defenses the f-22 sensor suite makes it capable of quietly
collecting enemy data such as radio and radar emissions without an adversary knowing it was
in the area this capability could even be useful in peacetime for intelligence collection purposes
China does have fifth-generation fighter aircraft in development to counter the f-22 the j-20 whose
development path is uncertain may emerge as a fighter to challenge the f-22 the j-31 is another
fifth-generation design development prototypes of both aircraft are currently flying but it may
be another decade before either each operational status in the meantime China is very exposed to
the f-22 threat and there's not a whole lot it can do about it number three virginia-class submarine
the virginia-class attack submarines are the most advanced nuclear submarines in the world first
introduced in 2004 the virginia-class submarines display 7800 tons and are powered by a single s9g
nuclear reactor that gives each unlimited range the submarines are not only capable of attacking
enemy ships and submarines but are capable of launching cruise missile attacks serving
as a mothership for unmanned undersea vehicles supporting naval special operation forces and
collecting intelligence the submarines are armed with four torpedo tubes armed with a mixture of
mk-48 guided torpedoes and sub harpoon anti-ship missiles in addition to torpedo tube armament the
virginia-class has 12 vertical launch silos for tomahawk land attack long-range cruise missiles
the submarines can also transport US Navy SEALs and other naval Special Forces China fears the
virginia-class submarines because it has zero operational experience in anti-submarine warfare
ASW and a woefully insufficient ASW capability none of China's submarines including the Shang
nuclear or yuan class diesel electric boats can match the virginia-class and sensors stealth and
armament it would be at a distinct disadvantage in a one-on-one undersea duel China has approximately
three y8 long-range maritime patrol aircraft in the same class as the Western p-3c Orion Japan
by contrast has roughly a hundred p-3c Orion and considers ASW so important it's developing its own
replacement for the aging Orion most if not all of China's surface fleet including the carrier
Leonin hell anti-submarine weapons but they are of unknown quality and many such as ASW torpedoes
are copies of older Western and Soviet designs China is currently working to improve its ASW
capabilities including building up to 20 type 0:54 a frigates armed with modern sonars anti-submarine
barrel mortars torpedoes and ASW helicopters an anti-submarine variant of the type 0:56
Corvette equipped with an advanced towed sonar array is rumored to be under production Beijing
is also hard at work developing an ocean floor surveillance network 11 Virginia class submarines
are currently in service with a projected overall buy of at least 30 submarines the Virginia class
represents an exceptional capability pointed against an exceptional vulnerability in a future
conflict with China the Virginia submarines could punch well above their weight number for
b-2 spirit one of the most recognizable weapons in the world the batwing to b-2 bomber is also
one of the deadliest originally conceived as a strategic nuclear bomber the b2 is modified at
the end of the Cold War to also serve as a conventional bomber the b2 s ability to
penetrate air defense networks travel up to 6,000 miles without refueling and carry up to 40 tons of
satellite-guided bombs make it possibly the most lethal weapon system currently in existence the
b2 is fearsome to Beijing as it is undetectable and can reach targets anywhere in China the b2
can take off from Andersen Air Force Base off the island of Guam and strike targets from Zhejiang
to Shanghai if the United States and China were to go to war in the western Pacific China could
expect strikes anywhere within its borders this has far-reaching implications no part of China
would be safe an airbase ammunition depot rail station power facility or port could be
attacked the amount of airspace China would have to defend increases dramatically and China would
have to spread out its forces of 296 su-27 and su-35 fighters to cover the entire country even
then detection and interception would be far from guaranteed the b2 is yet another weapon
system that illustrates the many one-sided advantages the United States possesses in
any hypothetical conflict with the United States China could not hope to attack the US mainland
with anything but cyber and nuclear weapons the b2 has no equivalent in Chinese Arsenal's although
to be fair a strategic bomber has never been a Chinese priority there are rumors of a stealth
bomber under development in China but so far nothing tangible has appeared unlike the other
weapons on this list the b-2 bomber has already attacked Chinese territory technically the b2 has
name recognition in China for having mistakenly attacked the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade during
NATO's 1999 air campaign against Yugoslavia three Chinese citizens were killed and 20 wounded and
what the Chinese government called a barbarian Act the bombing setback us-chinese relations
and ignited considerable anti-american sentiment in China number five f-35 lightning to the f-35
lightning ii is america's next generation fighter bomber meant to replace existing aircraft such as
the f-16 f-18 c and a-10 aligned for being over budget and behind schedule the f-35 has had a
rocky development history still if the f-35 does indeed eventually work as advertised it
will be a formidable aircraft the sheer number of f-35 SN service will be problematic for Beijing
although the US Air Force's campaigned to make every new fighter a fifth-generation fighter
has been enormous ly expensive and resulted in an aging fighter fleet and all stealth fighter fleet
does complicate matters for potential adversaries the f-35 will extend China's stealth problem in
any future conflict China would already likely see f-22 Raptors based at Kadena Air Force Base on the
island of Okinawa US Air Force f-16 fighters at Misawa Air Base in northern Japan will likely be
replaced with f-35 A's the increased range of the f-35 over the f16 beams that fighters from Misawa
could theoretically strike the Chinese mainland with standoff weapons further complicating the
issue for Beijing some of China's other potential adversaries such as Australia will also be flying
f-35s all of China's air defenses from aew aircraft to surface-to-air missiles guarding
aircraft carriers to man portable systems would have to be optimized against stealth aircraft
not even the United States is properly prepared for such a threat while aircraft such as the f-35
are extremely expensive and all stealth force does push adversaries to invest in expensive upgrades
of their air defenses finally like the f-22 Raptor the f-35 has an advanced suite of sensors that
add intelligence collection reconnaissance and electronic warfare capabilities the f-35 and a
q 37 distributed aperture system is reportedly capable of tracking ballistic missiles and other
targets at ranges exceeding 800 miles while the apg-81 radar system can map terrain and enemy
forces on the ground these capabilities would be useful not only in war time but peacetime as well
you