Editors' Pick|Sep 14, 2021,08:00am EDT|501 views
Project Kaiju: The U.S. Air Force’s Desperate Bid To Protect Big, Slow Planes From Fast, Smart Chinese Missiles
David Axe
The U.S. military absolutely depends on the Air Force’s lumbering aerial tankers to extend the range of short-range fighters so they can travel the many hundreds of miles from the Pentagon’s Pacific bases to likely battle zones around, say, Taiwan.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army knows this. And it’s working hard to develop new ways of shooting down the tankers. Knocking out the refueling planes and other so-called “high-value airborne assets” is one of the PLA’s top priorities.
And it’s a top priority of the U.S. Air Force to stop the PLA from taking out HVAAs. To that end, the Air Force Research Laboratory has launched a new program. It’s got an, ahem, interesting name.
Project Kaiju. A reference to the giant, rubber-suit monsters of Japanese cinema.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2021/09/14/project-kaiju-the-us-air-forces-desperate-bid-to-protect-big-slow-planes-from-fast-smart-chinese-missiles/?sh=773ff9d3e7d9