The Wall Street Journal reports:
Helprin is coming over 5×5 on his F-22 comments (we need at least twice as many to meet future threats), but Chinese nuclear parity? Eh, not so much. Though the Chinese have ICBMs, ballistic missile submarines, and aircraft capable of nuclear delivery, they lack the ability to accurately lay down atomic ordinance globally. Per the old Soviet model, you can substitute numbers for precision, but the DoD estimates that the Chinese only have something to the tune of 100 deployed warheads — that is, nukes that are ready to fly in a hot minute. I’m sure the exact numbers are classified, but with our 500 ICBMs alone we’ve easily got the ChiComs out gunned. Still, Helprin’s overall point is well taken. The Chinese recognize their nuclear shortcomings and are adjusting accordingly. That’s bad news for both America and her allies in the region. When China can operate under the protection of a fully operational strategic umbrella, the probably of a quick and dirty conventional war with Taiwan increases exponentially. Enter the importance of the F-22 and other state v. state weapon platforms. To prevent war in the Far East, we simply must maintain at least a decade’s worth of technological dominance over the Chinese — both nuclear and conventional.
