With the US strategy of "pivoting to the Asia-Pacific" in recent years, the US military has also strengthened the deployment of military bases in Asia, especially in the western Pacific region, with the aim of increasing its own naval and air capabilities. In recent years, with the continuous strengthening of our equipment, there have been more and more stealth fighters. As the forefront of the confrontation with China and an important base of the US Air Force, Japan's Okinawa bears the brunt of the attack, because this area is only 650 kilometers away from our country in a straight line, which is exactly within the strike range of the J-20 stealth fighter.
When the J-20 stealth fighter did not form a scale before, the United States believed that the air base in Okinawa was the best place to deploy to suppress our development, and it was also an extremely important link in the first island chain, so the United States deployed a large number of F-35 stealth fighters at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa in an attempt to curb our actions in this area through the generation difference of fighters, so as to achieve its own goals.
In April 2023, 48 F-15C D fighters deployed by the U.S. military at the Kadena base were retired, and for some time, the U.S. military did not replenish new fighters. The United States intends to cancel the rotation deployment plan of the F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters at the Kadena base, and will only deploy the F-16 and F-15EX fighters at this air base, as for the F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters, they are really very valuable to the US Air Force, so they will not be deployed at the Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, but will all be withdrawn, in the event of a conflict, in order to avoid being killed by the situation, and instead deploy third-generation fighters here.
Previously, the United States deployed two squadrons of F-15C D fighters at Kadena Air Base, and friends who are familiar with the model number of the US Air Force know that this aircraft is an old model, which has been in service for decades and is approaching the end of its life. This old aircraft will be a little powerless in the face of the new fighters of the Chinese Air Force, which are only a few years old. Starting in 2022, the United States began to withdraw these old aircraft deployed at the Kadena base to the country and wait for retirement, while the newer F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters were deployed at the Kadena air base in turn, trying to form a generational advantage in this way.
Of course, the US F-35 and F-22 fighters have no advantage in front of the J-20 fighters, and the avionics and airborne radar of the F-22 fighters have lagged behind, and even in terms of power. And the F-35 fighter has also been in contact with the J-20 fighter and has not taken advantage. In other words, ten years ago, these stealth fighters of the US military still had some advantages, and at present, these two stealth fighters do not have much advantage.
However, as our military power continues to grow, the United States has found that such a deployment is not helpful. At present, we have equipped more and more J-20 stealth fighters, and at the same time have ballistic missiles with a range of thousands of kilometers, plus the Air Force's H-6K bombers and J-16 fighter groups, once there is a conflict, the US Air Force fighters will not be able to survive at the Kadena base, and these advanced fighters of the US military will be directly cleared, and the US military's battlefield initiative will be completely lost. In this context, the United States had to announce that it would withdraw its stealth fighters and use other non-stealth fighters for deployment in order to preserve its stealth fighters.
According to the current deployment plan, the United States will deploy these stealth fighters at the air base in Alaska, and in the event of a war in the western Pacific direction, the US stealth fighters will take off from Alaska and then fly to the area where the incident occurred. First of all, once a military conflict breaks out, the forward airfields of the US military in the western Pacific region will be the first target to be attacked, and even if the stealth fighters can fly over the airfield, will they be able to land for deployment?
Second, the range of the US military's stealth fighters is limited, and if you want to fly from Alaska to the western Pacific, you must go through many air refueling during the period, and at present, with the birth of ultra-long-range air-to-air missiles, air tankers will become the hunting objects of stealth fighters.
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