US struggles on China-war planning

WASHINGTON - The US Defence Department is struggling to determine the right mix of bombers and other warplanes to fight China if it ever became necessary, President Bush's choice to become the next air force chief of staff said.

Lining up such firepower would top his list of priorities if confirmed as the Air Force's top military officer, Gen Michael Moseley said at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Moseley said the right mix of long-range strike capabilities was "certainly one of the things that we are struggling with" as part of a sweeping US defence review carried out once every four years and currently under way.

"The enhancements that we see in the Chinese military (do) cause concern," he added in reply to a question from senator John Thune, a South Dakota Republican.

Moseley who ran the air war over Iraq that led to the ouster of President Saddam Hussein in 2003.

"That is at the top of my list ... long-range strike and the ability to do that for this country," said Moseley, the vice chief of staff up to replace the retiring Gen. John Jumper.

Retired air force colonel Walter Boyne, a former director of the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum, said Moseley likely was referring to the warplanes -- manned and unmanned -- needed to take out command posts, radar installations, surface-to-air missile sites, air fields and and military headquarters. Many such targets are deep in China's interior.

Moseley's comments reflected US concern about mounting Chinese investments in ballistic and cruise missiles that could hold forward US bases at risk of attack in places like South Korea and Japan, said Andrew Krepenivich of the Centre for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a nonpartisan group specialising in military strategy issues.

"This is not the air force saying we want to go to war with China, he said.

"This is the air force saying if we want to avoid war with China, we've got to be able to hold their critical capabilities at risk lest Beijing be tempted to use force to resolve disputes it has with other countries in the region."

- REUTERS