A United States Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon completes a triple roll in the sky above the largest aerospace and defense show in Asia. It’s followed with an aerial demonstration by the U.S.A.F MV-22B Osprey — the world’s first production tilt-rotor aircraft. It can take off and land like a helicopter, but flies with the range, airspeed and payload of fixed-wing airplane.

Inside the vast exhibition hall, trade visitors to the biennial Singapore Airshow eye some of the latest global offerings in military technology such as unmanned aerial vehicles, anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare aircraft, fire control radars and infrared counter-measures.

Keen to demonstrate its supremacy in defense and aerospace technology, the United States has more on display than any other country.

… Richard Bitzinger, senior fellow from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and global expert on the Chinese military agrees. He says so much remains unknown.

“I think China has been able to think creatively about how they use what they do have. Consequently that’s why we’re worried about things like their cyber war capabilities or these new types of weapons systems like an anti-ship ballistic missile,” says Bitzinger.