대만 방어를 위해선 제공권과 대함공격 능력이 필요

[위종민]

케네스 윌스바흐 미 태평양공군 사령관이 대만 방어를 위해선 제공권과 대함공격 능력이 필요하다고 최근 발언했습니다. 

우크라이나-러시아 전쟁에서 러시아 공군이 제공권 획득에 실패해 사상자 10만 명 이상으로 추산되는 막대한 피해를 입었음을 예로 들며, 태평양 공군에 예산이 더 지원된다면 제공권을 확보하는 데 쓸 거라고 말했습니다. 그에 필요한 자원으로 더 많은 라이트닝II, 호주가 개발중인 MQ-28 고스트 뱃과 유사한 반자동 드론, B-21 폭격기와 E-7 웨지테일, 중장기적으로 F-22를 대체할 NGAD 등을 예로 들었네요. 

또한 태평양 전역에 공군기를 분산시켜놓을 수 있는 최대한 많은 비행장을 찾고 있다고 말했습니다. 

이 컨퍼런스를 주최한 Air and Space Force Magazine의 기사가 더 자세하네요. 

E-3는 이제 하늘에 띄우는 것 자체가 커다란 도전이라 E-7이 매우매우매우 중요하고, 중국이 A2/AD 전략을 수행하기 위해 대만 동쪽에 배치할 함정들을 격파해야 할 필요성을 언급합니다. 

https://news.usni.org/2023/03/21/u-s-needs-air-superiority-ship-killing-weapons-to-defend-taiwan-pacific-air-forces-commander-says

U.S. Needs Air Superiority, Ship-Killing Weapons to Defend Taiwan, Pacific Air Forces Commander Says - USNI News

U.S. Needs Air Superiority, Ship-Killing Weapons to Defend Taiwan, Pacific Air Forces Commander Says - USNI News

View all posts by John Grady →

5-6 minutes

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Soldiers from a M110A2 self-propelled artillery squad from the Republic of China (Taiwan) Army. CNA Photo

“We need better weapons to attrit those ships,” Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach said. He noted that China’s angry response to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) visit to Taiwan last summer included encircling Taiwan with warships as a demonstration of its anti-access, area denial capability.

“One thing that people often don’t think about with respect to air superiority is weapons to be able to kill ships,” Wilsbach said, speaking during an online session with the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute.

He also advocated for advanced radars positioned east of Taiwan.

He pointed to Russia’s problems in Ukraine, both in logistics and in the ground battle since it lacks superiority in the air. He added that an amphibious invasion, which China would have to undertake against Taiwan, is far more difficult than crossing a land border.

Air superiority, “which wasn’t there, resulted in so much loss of life,” he said. Wilsbach estimated Russian casualties at 100,000 since the war began in February 2022.

Wilsbach said that if the Pacific Air Forces had an additional dollar, he’d spend it on air superiority. He mentioned more F-35 Lighting II Joint Strike Fighters that allies Japan and Australia also fly, advanced semi-autonomous drones similar to Canberra’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat, the stealthy B-21 bomber and better aerial intelligence surveillance with the E-7 Wedgetail as systems to meet that goal. Further out would come the Next Generation Air Dominance fighter, a sixth-generation manned aircraft to succeed the F-22.

Although China’s leadership has “a hard time getting past their obsession with Taiwan,” Wilsbach said he doesn’t think China wants to engage in this fight. “Certainly, Taiwan doesn’t,” he added. He said attrition in any conflict with China would reach levels on all sides “more closely paralleling World War II.”

To deter China’s ambitions, the Air Force “is looking for as many airfields where we can disperse the force” and locations to pre-position equipment and fuel across the Pacific. The command is also addressing “the tyranny of distance” problem that the region poses for logistics to continue operations after an attack. Wilsbach highlighted American fighter jets returning to Clark Air Base in the Philippines as an example of dispersed operations. He noted that this was the first time fifth-generation F-22 stealth fighters had landed there. The two planes belong to the 525th Fighter Squadron at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska.

The landings demonstrate the impact of the expanded treaty basing arrangements that the U.S. has with the Philippines. Rehabilitation started on runways at Baca as part of the agreement covering three other installations to expand U.S. presence in the South China Sea, USNI News reported earlier this week.

Wilsbach said the Fiscal Year 2023 budget has provided money “to expand runways, ramp space and weapons and fuel storage” to a more dispersed force.

Like the Marine Corps and Navy, the Air Force is looking to spread its operations over wider areas under its Agile Combat Employment program. Wilsbach added that Japan and Australia are distributing their forces to different locations to complicate any enemy’s attack planning. The Air Force is also working with the Army on missile and hypersonic defenses for dispersed operations.

“They realize with precision guided munitions you’re not going to be able to be based [on] a very large base when attacked” and continue to operate as before. He said there is funding in the FY 2024 budget to continue developing solutions for those attacks, including rapid runway repair. He mentioned a quick-drying concrete that allows them to be “ready for operations in three hours.”

“Construction, that’s happening. Prepositioning, that’s happening,” Wilsbach said.

“Allies and partners are very interested” in information sharing about their capabilities and available assets. He said they bring significant electronic warfare capabilities and cyber and space strengths to a potential conflict.

This sharing among allies and with the other services extend to exercises like COPE North. This year’s drill involves the American, Japanese and Australian air forces operating from a number of bases, as well as aircraft from France.

“Exercising on a very frequent basis helps us to be interoperable,” he said.

https://www.airandspaceforces.com/pacaf-commander-air-superiority-indo-pacific/

Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach, commander of Pacific Air Forces, speaks with retired Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula during an Aerospace Nation event hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies on March 20, 2023. Photo by Samantha Mitchell/Air & Space Forces Magazine

PACAF Commander: Focus Is on Air Superiority in the Indo-Pacific

Greg Hadley

5-6 minutes

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Give Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach, commander of Pacific Air Forces, one extra dollar, and he would spend it bolstering U.S. air superiority in the region. 

Speaking at an Aerospace Nation event hosted by AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, Wilsbach said March 20 that air superiority is a joint endeavor of the U.S. and its allies in the region, and includes everything from combat jets to tankers, airlifters, and intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and command and control assets like the E-7 Wedgetail. 

“It starts with the E-7,” Wilsbach said. “Having domain awareness is important. [The reason] why we need the E-7 so badly is because our current fleet of E-3s are challenged remarkably, just getting them in the air.”

The E-3s now average more than 42 years old and are based on a Boeing 707 airframe that is hardly in use anywhere any longer.

“Our maintainers are doing great work to keep those things in flying order, but [the aircraft] are old and they take a lot of maintenance to keep them in optimal condition,” Wilbach said. “And then the other fact is “Even when they’re perfectly in order and they get airborne, they don’t necessarily see what they need to see in the 21st century modern warfare. The E-7 does … and so the E-7 is absolutely critical.” 

The Air Force is contracted with Boeing to supply the E-7 and anticipates getting the first aircraft in 2027. To prepare its first E-7 crews, USAF is working with the Royal Australian Air Force, which already flies the airframe, Wilsbach said, giving U.S. Airmen a “sneak peak” at the Wedgetail now and over the next several years.  

“This sharing of tactics, techniques and procedures between the allies and partners only makes them stronger,” Wilsbach said. “Exercising on a very frequent basis helps us to be interoperable.”

USAF is also working with the Australians on developing Collaborative Combat Aircraft, the semi-autonomous drones that will fly alongside crewed fighters in the future, adding combat mass and new capabilities. The Royal Australian Air Force worked with Boeing to develop its MQ-28 Ghost Bat, which is similar to the U.S. CCA concept. 

“We really look forward to what they’re doing with the MQ-28 Ghost Bat there,” Wilsbach said. “They are doing some great work figuring out exactly how to use this aircraft and we look forward to seeing what they learned and then perhaps applying that to our CCA program ourselves.” 

U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said two weeks ago the service envisions a notional fleet of 1,000 CCAs—or even as many as 2,000—to help deter, and if necessary, fight the substantial forces of China in the Pacific. Wilsbach acknowledged that in a peer fight like that, the Air Force must anticipate significant losses, so mass will make a difference. 

“The ability to create dilemmas and mass up those dilemmas on your adversary causes them to make mistakes, it causes them to use weapons, and it eventually will cause them to lose their assets versus us,” Wilsbach said. 

CCAs will notionally supplement both the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) family of systems and the existing F-35A Lightning II. Yet achieving air superiority will require far more than platforms, Wilsbach said.

“One thing that people often don’t think about with respect to air superiority is weapons to be able to kill ships” that will seek to keep U.S. air forces far off shore, Wilsbach said. “They’re going to put ships out probably to the east of Taiwan,” he added. The radars and missile systems on those ships will seek to impose China’s anti-access/area denial strategy, “and when they take away that airspace, it takes away our ability to have freedom of maneuver, and to create effects via airpower—until you can attrite those ships.” 

Also critical is access to resilient, dispersed basing, which lessens reliance on major bases and increases complexity for adversary missile strikes. USAF’s adoption of Agile Combat Employment, in which small teams of Airmen deploy and operate from remote locales, often performing duties outside their usual specialties, “is becoming more of a theme for more and more of our allies and partners,” Wilsbach said. 

Developing the ACE concept further, the Air Force is building up small airfields throughout the Pacific, working with the State Department and Pentagon to negotiate access to more airfields, and even develop and share new technologies to make airfield repair faster. 

“This quick-drying concrete that we have, you pour it and it’s the consistency of a milkshake when it goes in the hole,” he said. “And 45 minutes later, you can walk on it. Three hours later, you can land a C-17 on it.” 

Every Airman in PACAF practices the concept in some form or fashion, Wilsbach said, and now they’re also helping to spread the word to allies.

“Japan and Australia are fantastic Agile Combat Employment partners, because they realize that they need to get good at Agile Combat Employment as well,” Wilsbach said. “There’s a great partnership between those two countries.”  

[Minowski(김유철)]

제일 관건은 우크라이나 보다 좁은 전장에 배치되어있는 적대적 방공망과 가용한 항공기지의 숫자 부족이겠네요. 전술기도 숫자는 줄고 늙어가고....

[위종민]

가용한 활주로 숫자를 늘리려고 필리핀과의 관계 개선에 신경을 쓰는 것 같은데, 충분한 숫자가 확보될 지 모르겠습니다. 태평양전쟁을 보면 전진배치된 기지들은 선제공격에 특히 취약한데 말이죠.

[사처포(곽명기)]

만약 중국이 대만을 군대로 침략한다면 그 방어는 무엇보다 아래의 두 가지가 결정적일텐데요.
-대만 자체의 결사항전 의지
-대만 자체의 군사력
우리 언론은 여기에 관한 정보에 무척 인색하네요.(제가 몰라서 그런가요 ?)

제 3자(미국, 유럽, 일본 등)가 아무리 북 치고 장고 쳐도
대만이 타협하거나 무릎 꿀면 만사 헛일 아니겠습니까 ?