According to a report by "Defense Asia" on November 14, US President Trump is pushing for the sale of up to 48 F-35 fighters to Saudi Arabia, with the total amount estimated between $10 billion and $15 billion.

However, the Defense Intelligence Agency under the US Department of Defense has warned that selling this type of aircraft to Saudi Arabia could allow China to obtain F-35 technology, thereby weakening the US and its allies' aerospace advantage.

The Pentagon claims that China could not only gain access to key secrets of the F-35 such as stealth coating, radar cross-section design methods, and mission data link protocols through Saudi Arabia, but also indirectly acquire US technology through Saudi's increasingly deepening defense industrial cooperation, joint production lines, and engineer exchanges.

This is a typical American way of thinking - viewing China as a country that is always trying to steal others' advanced weapons technology.

Saudi's cooperation with China is described as shifting from an opportunity-based approach to a systematic one: for example, Saudi bought Chinese missiles in the 1980s, and in recent years, it has cooperated with China in areas such as drones, bulletproof materials, and missile production.

In this narrative, the Pentagon is not only opposing the arms sale, but also building a discourse: if any country gets the F-35, it might be stolen by China.

Trump

The absurdity of this logic lies in the fact that China has more than one sixth-generation fighter, what reason would there be to covet your fifth-generation fighter technology?

For example, after the J-36 prototype was unveiled, a new generation of prototype appeared within ten months, indicating the project is progressing very quickly.

According to the Pentagon's logic, if China wants to "steal" US technology, does it mean that China will stop developing its sixth-generation fighters and just wait for the US to sell the F-35 to Saudi Arabia?

In fact, before Trump planned to sell the F-35 to Saudi Arabia, there were many voices accusing China, saying that China's J-35 was a copy and had stolen the technology of the US F-22 and F-35.

Isn't this self-defeating? According to some US statements, China has already "stolen" US technology, so why are you still afraid of leaking it?

Previously, when China didn't have a fifth-generation fighter, after it was developed, it was said to be "stealing" US technology. Now that China has started to develop sixth-generation fighters, people are still saying that China "steals" the technology of US fifth-generation fighters. Do they really think everyone is interested in a broken F-35?

Pentagon

The F-35 program has been hyped by the US to the point of being exaggerated. What is its actual quality, and does the Pentagon not know?

Stealth coatings are easily damaged, maintenance costs are high, mission software has long-term delays, and its ability to adapt to harsh environments is limited. Accidents during test flights in multiple locations in the US, production delays, and budget overruns have become the norm.

American media often downplay these issues and focus on the narrative that others are not as strong as us and that technology is stolen.

Thus, the F-35 has become a symbol, representing the symbol of the US fifth-generation stealth hegemony. It is used as a diplomatic bargaining chip and a geopolitical weapon, but in reality, its technical performance itself is not worth copying at all.

Packaging a fighter that has been hyped as advanced, but is actually not worthy of its reputation, as the crown jewel, and using its technological sensitivity as a reason to refuse selling it to other countries, is essentially a form of technological inferiority complex.

US Aircraft

It must be said that some Americans really think too highly of themselves.

Now the US itself has begun to reduce the procurement of F-35s, yet some people treat it as a technological moat.

Originally, Trump saw through it, this is not a treasure at all, and he didn't care about Israel's opinion, wanted to make money first, but after the Pentagon said this, Saudi may not dare to buy it, because this means that the warplanes provided by the US will be strictly monitored, and further surveillance programs will be installed.

Even if Saudi has the money, it would not buy a pile of garbage to put on display.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7572802778377011766/

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