American naval or air exercises, which are held in abundance around the world, including in the Pacific, are not often interesting. But sometimes something really interesting is noted among them.
During the Talisman Saber 2019 exercise, which took place at the end of July 2019 in Australia in the Coral Sea, the KC-30A air tanker (modification of the Airbus A330 MRTT) of the Australian Air Force refueled the American F-22 aircraft in the air. This was the first such refueling, according to the commander of the 13th US Air Force Expeditionary Force, Colonel Barley Baldwin.
The first question is: why? Air-to-air refueling is usually carried out when aircraft from the United States are ferried across the Pacific Ocean to air bases in Japan and South Korea. But here it was clearly not this option that was being worked out, but the option of refueling during the combat use of the aircraft. Do the Americans have few air bases that they would have to resort to refueling the F-22 in the air?
This incident attracted my attention for its illogicality and strangeness. After collecting some other information and thinking about why the Americans would need this, I came to the conclusion that we are talking about working out a new tactic of fighting for air superiority over a certain sea area.
Lack of bases
The Americans really do not have air bases everywhere. One of these places is the South China Sea. In the likely military confrontation between the United States and China, this sea is one of the most important, since sea communications pass through it, which it is advisable for the Americans to cut off. This has been talked about for a long time, back in 2011, plans for a naval blockade of China were already published.
Easy to say, hard to do. The PLA will throw its aviation and its fleet, which are becoming more and more numerous from year to year, to break the blockade. In addition, China has its own coastal airbases nearby and is reinforced on the Paracel Islands. The Americans, on the other hand, have their closest airbase of their own, Futtama in Okinawa, 1,900 kilometers from the area. This is outside the F-22's combat radius. Of course, one can speculate that there is the Philippines, and they can provide airfields. Only this question is still debatable, and it may turn out that the Philippines will not want to help the United States so as not to have to deal with China. At the old American airbase Clark near Luzon, closed in 1991, a small air contingent has been based since 2016: 5 A-10 aircraft, three HH-60 helicopters and about 200 personnel. This is only a patrol, and it cannot perform serious military tasks. In addition, basing the secret and very expensive F-22, on which high hopes are pinned, in the Philippines is too much of a risk. From this it follows that the F-22 can operate in the South China Sea, it must refuel in the air somewhere in the area east of Taiwan.
Numerical superiority for the Chinese aviation
There is another important factor as well. In recent years, China has significantly increased the number of its aviation, and now can put up to 600 modern aircraft in the theater of operations of the Yellow, East China and South China Seas. The Chinese also have a large network of air bases and airfields that allow these air forces to maneuver and concentrate them in one place or another. For the Americans, the combat radius of aircraft based on existing air bases covers only the northern part of this region.
The United States now has only about 400 modern aircraft, and they can only send a fraction of them to the Pacific Ocean, probably 200-250, including aircraft carriers. This already gives an almost threefold numerical superiority of the PLA Air Force in the air, that is, there is a possibility that Chinese aviation can defeat the American, seize air supremacy, and then it will no longer be possible to talk about any blockade of China.
In the USA, of course, it was combed. But since they cannot catch up with the Chinese aviation in numbers, the idea arose to bet on quality superiority. Back in April 2019, U. S. Air Force Pacific Commander Charles Brown announced that by 2025 there will be more than 200 F-22 and F-35 aircraft in the region, his own and allies.
However, this idea was not as easy to implement as it initially seemed. There are too few airbases, and this entire aviation group not only could not operate in the South China Sea, but it would also be crowded at several airbases, which would make it extremely vulnerable. Moreover, China began to practice missile strikes against air bases and aircraft carriers with medium-range missiles. Even a partial success of such a missile attack could sharply shift the balance of power in China's favor and enable it to seize air supremacy.
The Negro with four stars of the general and his subordinates brainwashed and put forward an option, which we are now discussing.
Hit - run away
In general, this is the tactic of the Luftwaffe ace Erich Hartmann: "Hit and run away." Hartmann racked up his 352 wins in a very simple way. He did not climb into the dump and turns, but chose a separate target for himself, usually a weak pilot, who is clearly visible from the flight, dived at him from the sun, beat him and immediately went to the height and to the side. The tactics are very effective and quite safe for the ace, however, its military expediency is also very doubtful. At least paint the plane with stripes will do.
The Americans took this same tactic with some modifications. The goal for Hartmann and General Brown and his pilots is to knock out from the enemy (in this case, the PLA Air Force) more of the best aircraft, so that later you can finish off the remaining ones with carrier-based aircraft. They have no choice, since a head-on fight in such unfavorable conditions can end in their defeat.
Their main calculation is made on the F-22 - AN / APG-77 radar, which has an instrumental range of 593 km, and the detection range in stealth mode, that is, using hard-to-see weak pulses, is 192 km. The newest AIM-120D missile has a launch range, according to available data, up to 180 km. That is, the F-22 pilot is given data on the presence of an enemy in a certain area, he must come up, fumble with the radar in stealth mode, then attack with missiles and immediately leave. The last point is the whole point of the new tactics. An F-22 in a theater of operations in the South China Sea should be suitable for an attack from the ocean and, after an attack, go to the same place where a tanker plane is waiting for it. Chinese planes, even if they find it, will not be able to pursue due to the limited supply of fuel, and the F-22 will fly to its air tanker, refuel and go to its airbase. Its ferry range exceeds 3000 km, which allows refueling far in the ocean, beyond the reach of Chinese interceptors. The KC-30A can deliver 65 tons of fuel at a distance of 1800 km from the base, with the possibility of returning to the base. The tanker aircraft can refuel 8 F-22 aircraft in the air. In addition, the KS-30A can take fuel in the air from another refueling tanker, that is, in principle, it is possible to transfer fuel from aircraft to aircraft in a chain, thereby ensuring either the actions of aircraft at a distance of several thousand kilometers from the airbase, or ensuring their long stay in the air …
This circumstance allows the F-22 to operate from air bases in the east of Japan and from Australia, as well as, if it is very necessary, then from Alaska and Pearl Harbor (respectively 8, 5 and 9, 4 thousand kilometers to the South China Sea). Let's not forget that the United States has an S-3 carrier-based aircraft with a refueling modification that can refuel one F-22 in the air. That is, refueling is possible not only from coastal air bases, but also from aircraft carriers in the open ocean.
In my opinion, the idea is quite original and feasible. Of course, one can hardly expect that with such bites from afar, the Americans will be able to cope with all the latest Chinese aviation. For any tactic, you can develop counter-tactics, both reducing the enemy's efforts to zero and leading him into a trap, under attack.
But still, the Americans get one weighty advantage from this: the very opportunity to conduct battles in the air in very distant theaters of operations. Even if the Chinese carry out a missile attack on their close air bases in Japan and South Korea, they will still have the opportunity to use aircraft over the waters of the South China Sea.
