Pouring concrete to make hardened shelters for aircraft on the ground may not be as sexy as building next-generation fighter jets, but it may be just as important for the U.S. in a potential conflict with China, according to airpower scholars.
PLA Air Force
The People’s Republic of China has improved its ability to project power globally despite corruption purges and a shrinking economy, the Pentagon’s annual report card on the Chinese military says. That includes a growing nuclear arsenal that added 100 new warheads in the last year.
China is making steady and ominous gains in the quality of its military forces and its ability to project power—while making more open challenges to the U.S. in the Indo-Pacific and worldwide, according to the Pentagon’s 173-page China Military Power Report released in late August.