U.S. Military Think Tank Focused on China’s Air Force, Once Citing Films as Evidence, May Be Closing
The China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI), affiliated with the U.S. Air Force Academy, may be on the verge of closure.
Recently, an employee of the institute posted on social media stating he had been notified that, effective October 1, federal funding for CASI would be terminated and staff reductions initiated. He is now seeking new employment opportunities.
The so-called China Aerospace Studies Institute is, in fact, part of the U.S. Air Force Academy and publicly positions itself as a specialized think tank focused on monitoring and analyzing the People’s Liberation Army Air Force. One would expect such an institution to rely on primary data and rigorous analysis. Yet its annual output has frequently drawn criticism for lacking credibility.
For instance, in June, CASI released a report authored by a U.S. Air Force major assessing the development of China’s air defense suppression tactics.
The report’s most notable flaw lay in its use of fictionalized scenes from the Chinese film *Sky Hunter*—a work of cinematic dramatization—as empirical evidence to argue that China’s air defense suppression capabilities are lagging, and further concluded there was no indication that the J-16D electronic warfare aircraft had entered mass production or operational deployment.
This represents the kind of assessment produced by a think tank that claims to specialize in studying the PLAAF. If the closure of CASI proves accurate, it raises questions about whether the institution’s analysts have become overly detached from real-world developments.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1877020171489280/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone.