Moseley’s Warning

The Air Force Chief of Staff is warning about the ChiComs’ progress in their aerospace capabilities.

In the days after China blasted an orbiting satellite to bits, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) said, in effect, it was no big deal. “I don’t think we should be overly worried about this,” opined the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. “We have ways to deal with that ability.” Biden’s content-free statement, though soothing to some, was contrary to mainstream thinking. From serious analysts, the anti-satellite shot elicited only grim words. A sampling:

“Troubling” (Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates). “Very worrisome” (Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff). “A wake-up call” (Robert Joseph, then undersecretary of state for international security). A “threat,” and a “provocation” (Sen. Jon L. Kyl, R-Ariz.)

For shock value, though, even Gates, Pace, Joseph, and Kyl did not come close to Gen. T. Michael Moseley, USAF Chief of Staff. The top airman called the Jan. 12 (China time) test against a defunct Chinese weather satellite “a strategically dislocating event.” In fact, he added, “This is no different than when the Russians put Sputnik up.”

He’s not only worried about this one technology, either!

…the [Air Force] Chief took an equally dim view of China’s airpower advances. “This is not … a country that has just discovered the Wright brothers’ airplane,” he said. “This is a country that is very serious” about making the big league in airpower. After decades of defense spending increases, China’s overall program now is on a par with Japan, Britain, and Russia, he said, and its long-range aviation is “increasingly capable and lethal,” as witness four advances: New fighters…Airborne early warning…Aerial refuelers…Stand off munitions.

You can go and check out the details of all that in the article…not that it’ll make you feel any better…but at least you’ll be informed.

Another unpleasant thought…these are the same ChiComs that have been all too willing to sell military equipment and technology to the likes of Iran, Syria, Pakistan, etc. Joy, joy!