Could stealth fighter jets take off from Japan, get past China’s air defence system and bomb Shanghai?
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Chinese military researchers say they have simulated this scenario, with mixed results.
Their 10 rounds of computer simulation found that stealth fighters could be detected from 180km (110 miles) away by just a few land-based radars.
That would mean an F-22 or F-35 stealth fighter, for example, would be detected before it was in the 24km range needed to use precision-guided bombs for a ground attack.
The F-35 can enter “beast mode” to use larger and longer-range ground attack missiles but in doing so it will lose its stealth capabilities, so it could then be detected from much further away. The simulations found aircraft without stealth capabilities could be detected from a distance of 450km.
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But an F-35 can also carry cruise missiles with a range of more than 900km. At their closest point, Japan is about 800km away from Shanghai.