Must read: Chinese Aerospace Power, Emerging Maritime Roles

For readers with a more than passing interest in Asia Pacific military affairs, Chinese Aerospace Power, Emerging Maritime Roles is the book for you.  Edited by China defence experts Andrew Erickson and Lyle Goldstein, the book is a series of essays and papers about China's capabilities and possible intentions in regard to the use of air and space assets in a war off its coast. It also spells out the implications of this for the US air force and US navy.

 The book is divided into five sections:

1) Chinese Aerospace Development, Emerging Maritime Roles

2) Chinese ISR and counter-ISR

3) Contrasting strategies: protecting bastions or projecting power?

4) Maritime strike: air-launched cruise missiles

5) Maritime strike: ballistic missiles

6) Maritime implications of Chinese Aerospace Power

What's not to like?

For those who think China would be a pushover for the USA, the book provides sobering reading. In the event of a conflict, China is gearing up to fight intense, high-technology conflicts close to its shores. The crux of China's strategy would be to reduce enemy air bases in the region with ballistic and cruise missiles.

In regard to American warships, the much touted DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile would not necessarily be used to sink ships, but possibly shower them with sub munitions. A rain of bomblets falling upon an aircraft carrier's deck would create havoc and certainly result in a mission kill. One of the writers in the book says the test of such a system - presumably against a fast moving ship far out at sea - would be a public relations coup similar to China's test of an anti-satellite missile in 2007.

Even if the DF-21D does not prove as effective as advertised, firing off volleys of ballistic missiles toward the general vicinity of American carrier battle groups would force AEGIS escorts to expend valuable anti-ballistic missiles. Eventually the magazine capacity of these  warships would be exhausted, again resulting in a mission kill for the carrier group.

Chinese Aerospace Power also discusses areas of weakness. China appears to have a long way to go before it can mount successful joint forces attacks, say involving ballistic missiles and air-launched cruise missiles striking an enemy base simultaneously.  For long range strikes, there is also some question about the speed of its sensor-to-shooter abilities: i.e. it may identify a target, but does it have the command and control structure to shoot quickly enough? China also has a long, long way to go in key areas such as long range anti-submarine warfare, airborne early warning & control, and air-to-air refuelling.

Nonetheless, this a timely and well written book that puts issues around China's airpower in useful perspective.