Stefan Viljoen schrieb:

> That's the thing... what you might do is swamp a single F-22 with eight 
> bogies, or even twelve? Sure it could splash four, or even six, but two 
> might get through. The thing is, the Chinese for example, can -afford- this 
> loss rate, and its still a bonus to them if even one 1950's era MIG-19 or 
> -21 can get one napalm canister onto US troops. The Chinese were famous for 
> this type of tactics in Korea for example, as concerns ground-fighting - an 
> unstoppable human wave, with complete disregard for the lives of their 
> soldiers. If you have thousands of aircraft (and an apparently constantly 
> improving corps of pilots), why not try this from the air as well?

Japan apparently went into WW2 with a similar mindset, only to find 
themselves running out of planes and pilots in the long run.

If an encounter between 40 MiGs and 4 F-22s should end up with the F-22s 
running like rabbits and both parties getting away unharmed, while an 
encounter between 40 MiGs and 16 F-22s should end up with the F-22s 
running like rabbits unharmed /after/ having downed two or three MiGs, 
then those are odds the fleet of MiGs will not be able to sustain 
forever. Even if they can replace the planes fast enough, they'll 
ultimately suffer a shortage of skilled pilots (which was exactly what 
happened to Japan in WW2, up to the point where they devised a tactic 
that would allow them to teach their new pilots only how to survive long 
enough to reach their target).

> Ok, I partially agree. But a factor in US thinking is always "morale at 
> home". I don't think the Chinese have this same respect for human life,

You keep talking about China, and what you say is probably true for 
them. But do you /really/ think there will /ever/ be an 
all-conventional-forces-out conflict between the USA and China that 
wouldn't end up going nuclear?

And I'm pretty sure neither China nor the USA have any desire to risk that.

Besides, I guess China is also profiting too much from export, and the 
USA too much from cheap Chinese labor, for any side to be too much 
interested in an outright war.

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