In a direct conflict with China, the ICBM exchange would destroy the F35s on the ground.

elzbardico an hour ago | parent | next [-]

There won't be a direct conflict with China, at least not in the last 10 years, because the US first needs to complete de-coupling his economy from China more, re-industralize in-shore or at least near-shore, and dramatically build up its military and logistic capabilities to fight an expeditionary campaign on China shores.

China also is not stupid, and no matter how much they posture, they won't invade Taiwan.

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mrguyorama 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

China doesn't seem to think so. China believes they need to fight those F35s in the air.

Why would the opening salvo be ICBMs?

	▲	don_esteban 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		To deny the US the use of any nearby airfields (Okinawa, several others in Japan an Philippines). This will limit US airpower to carriers, which are few and sinkable. Of course, China wants to be able to fight those F35s in the air - to mitigate the damage they can do to them (while the F35s still have airfield/carriers to land on) - also in order to make it easier to sink those carriers. Still, you can bet that all US nearby airfields would be peppered very early in the conflict.