The US and Chinese air forces are rethinking whether it's possible to control the air

• Advanced sensors and long-range weapons are making air superiority harder to achieve.
• The US and Chinese air forces are both thinking about how they'd try to control the air in a war.
• Experts on both sides see achieving permanent control of the air as increasingly unlikely.

The classic definition of air superiority comes down a simple proposition: Your air force can conduct its assigned missions while keeping an enemy air force from doing the same.

Yet the US and China are grappling with the realization that control of the skies doesn't mean what it used to. Strategists on both sides are wondering whether it's even possible to achieve aerial dominance for more than brief periods against near-peer adversaries.