Thread by @TrentTelenko

This is a really useful thread by @CollinSLKoh on the Chinese artificial islands in the South China Sea (SCS) & their usability as fortified air bases.

He brings all the science paper receipts, so check it out 1st.

I'm going to embellish upon it with this🧵

1/

https://twitter.com/CollinSLKoh/status/1589345602504396801

While this paper @CollinSLKoh posted touches on the 'dissolvability' of concrete structures in the SCS maritime environment.

None of the snap shots he posted goes into the two most important factors required for usable runways.

2/

https://twitter.com/CollinSLKoh/status/1589351189535395840

Those two factors are minimum Load Classification Number (LCN) and runway deformation.

Runway LCN are a vital characteristic as to how heavy an aircraft can operate on a runway.

Below is the standard definition of LCN.

3/
encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/load+classific…

The military operations of the Falklands War turned on the LCN of the Port Stanley air strip. Which had a minimum LCN of 16, although in places it was as high as 30, with 300mm of compacted crushed stone on white sand with a minimum of 32mm of asphalt.
4/
thinkdefence.co.uk/port-stanley-a…

When your aircraft exceeds the runway LCN, the weight of the plane crushes the asphalt.

This fact has been used as an engineered materials arresting system (EMAS) in the upgrade of some passenger airports w/o a long runway end safety area, (RESA).

5/
medium.com/@safety_first/…

The other factor, air strip deformation, is about how flat it is.

Things like soil liquefaction happen when insufficiently deep engineering of the soil under a runways meets bad climate.

Planes like the C-130J Hercules transport can operate on fields with high deformation.
6/

Jet fighter planes like the F-16 not designed for STOL operations, not so much.

Fighters land very fast compared to other aircraft. Minor deformations can cause them to jump or roll and go into an out of control condition.

7/

See also the lifting body crash used as the opening scene to the 1970's Six Million Dollar Man television series.



8/

Building runways for F-16s is more finicky than building them for B-52 bombers.

This ability to operate from more...deformed....air strips was an design & operational factor in SAC's planning for protracted nuclear war, AKA "Broken Back Warfare."

9/

The B-1B bomber -- "The Bone" -- combines both LCN & deformation issues, which is one of the many reasons the Air Force doesn't like them.

They simply cannot operate at a lot of bases a B-52 can.
10/

The lack of Chinese Su-27 fighter operations in the Spratly Islands has been noticed.

See:
Why Doesn’t China Deploy Fighter Jets to the Spratly Islands?

11/
thediplomat.com/2020/08/why-do…

Given Ukrainian Su-27's operate from patches of road this suggests something is really wrong with these landing strips.

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China raised a fuss with Vietnam by landing an H-6K bomber on a SCS airfield, and later followed it up with electronic warning and surveillance aircraft and helicopters on two disputed islands in the South China Sea

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..per Bill Gertz in the Washington Times on July 13, 2021.

The problem is that the Chinese AWACS designs are based on cargo planes that can operate from high deformation air strips that even an Su-27 can't.

14/

Whatever is going on regards the sub-soil under those PLAN SCS landing strips affecting Su-27 Operations.

The USA has had the capability since 1984 to scope out the issue with satellite radar.

15/
earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/Space…

NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission has found thousands of hidden indications of past civilizations in the mid-east.

And was a Reagan Administration message to the Soviet's "Don't even thing about cheating with underground missiles."

16/
See: econotimes.com/NASA-satellite….

So, the National Reconnaissance Office's 21st century version of this radar satellite technology might know this Chinese SCS runway sub-soil problem as a certainty.

17/17 End