China just commissioned three ships on the same day: A Ballistic missile submarine, a cruiser, and an amphibious ship/baby carrier.
The baby carrier displaces around 35 to 40 thousand tons, which puts it on par with the Wasp class LHD. The US Navy has nine of these ships, with 5 of them in the Pacific theater.
The cruiser is equivalent to the Aegis cruiser, with phased array radars and 128 VLS missiles.
This newest submarine boosts Chinese to 6 ballistic missile subs. Now these subs are noisier than either their Russian or American counterparts, but they don’t have to be as quiet, because they are staying close to the Chinese coast, where they can be defended by shore based assets.
The current Chinese sub launched missile, the J-2, has a 4500 mile range. This means that only Alaska is within range of these missiles, but that will change in 2025, when the new J-3 missile goes into fleet service with their newest submarines, set to enter the fleet in 2023. The worrisome part here is that the Chinese will more than triple the number of nuclear warheads in their arsenal from 300 to over 1,000 within the next 8 years. Some reports estimate that the number of warheads may be significantly higher- as many as 3,000 warheads.
The Chinese are engaged in a MASSIVE military buildup at a time when the US Navy is weak. Granted, Chinese spending is less than a third of US spending, but the US spending is disproportionately spent on pay and boondoggles like sex changes and promoting more women, while the Chinese are using the money to build more platforms and weapons systems.
The Chinese are increasing military readiness across the board, while the US is decreasing readiness. Within the next decade, the US Navy will be outnumbered and outclassed by PLAN.
4 Comments
Mike Austin · April 28, 2021 at 9:31 am
I have been reading about the coming “Chinese military dominance” for almost fifty years. And the result is…what? Besides Chinese propaganda outlets constantly bleating this theme, where is the evidence?
On the one hand we hear of super secret Chinese weapons that can destroy any American carrier battle group in an instant. Then, on the other hand, we hear of China building—or rather, attempting to build—her own carrier battle groups. Should I mention that these two goals do not logically cohere? Should I also mention that the skills necessary to land and take off from an aircraft carrier takes years or decades to master. The evidence that China can perform such miracles of naval aviation does not exist. Yet America has been performing this feat for almost 100 years.
And how about the “invincible” Chinese army, supposedly numbering in the millions? How have they fared since Mao seized power in 1949? During the Korean War the kill ratio of Chinese dead to American dead was more than 60 to 1. Then in 1979 the “invincible” Chinese hordes pounced on Vietnam. The result? The Chinese got their asses handed to them. Since then China has hardly ventured out from her borders on any military expedition worth mentioning.
And how has the American military fared? Why not ask the Nazis and the Japanese militarists. Or Saddam Hussein? Or the Afghanis? Remember them? As for Afghanistan, when President Bush invaded after 9/11 the “finest military minds on earth” predicted a disaster for American arms, tens of thousands of body bags and an embarrassing retreat from an area that had not been conquered since Alexander. The Taliban were defeated in five weeks. Since then the American military has been constantly at war somewhere in the world. As they say, “practice makes perfect.”
And the Chinese? Well, since 1949 they have managed to kill 100,000,000 of their own citizens. And rape thousands of Buddhist nuns. And kick female babies to death in the streets. At such antics the Chinese are experts one must admit.
Those who fear China because of the size of her military have not yet learned the lessons of Cannae (216 BC) or of Guagamela (331 BC) or of Narva (1700).
China has not been able to invade Taiwan, an island scarcely 80 miles away. And if those invincible Chinese hordes start a war in the Taiwan Strait? What will India do? Japan? The US? The enemies of China will have a vote in any conflict.
China is a paper tiger. It is not Beijing I fear, but Washington DC.
Divemedic · April 28, 2021 at 12:28 pm
The two aren’t mutually exclusive. The Chinese have three carriers, and although they are of the ski jump launch variety, they are performing arrested landings and have been for about 9 years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK84FrDe5_0
I wouldn’t use the outcome in recent wars as a bragging point for the US. The US is great at winning battles, but the US people don’t have the balls to see a war through to its end or to fight one to win. We have been at war for two decades now against goat farmers and cave dwellers. The reason for that isn’t military- it is because Americans don’t have the will to win wars. If a war isn’t won within a couple of weeks, citizens begin screaming for us to pull out.
As far as world war two- that war was fought because we were making ships, planes, and other weapons faster than the Axis could destroy them. That is no longer possible. We just don’t have the manufacturing capabilities.
Mike Austin · April 28, 2021 at 2:05 pm
Dear Divemedic:
Your YouTube source is from Chinese media. The header for this video says it all: “A historical day for China, the Chinese Navy and the Chinese’s People’s dream of becoming a military great power.” Goebbels could not have written a better line.
Did you notice that in every single example shown in the video, the weather was absolutely perfect? Quite convenient. Just like in actual warfare.
You don’t seem to like the American people very much: “…the US people don’t have the balls to see a war through to its end or to fight one to win.” And: “…it is because Americans don’t have the will to win wars. If a war isn’t won within a couple of weeks, citizens begin screaming for us to pull out.” Since when did the American people have a say in “seeing a war to the end” or insisting that it be fought to win? Politicians make such decisions and they are, almost entirely, moral and physical weaklings and nearly immune from any pressure from the populace. If I got all my information about our recent wars from Code Pink, I would agree with you.
You wrote “As far as world war two- that war was fought because we were making ships, planes, and other weapons faster than the Axis could destroy them. That is no longer possible. We just don’t have the manufacturing capabilities.” All true. All irrelevant. World War II is now 80 years ago. We are not going to refight it again, are we? What we needed to win that war is not what we need today.
To get a true example of American fighting prowess, we need only look at Syria. In 2018 hundreds of Russian mercenaries—many of them Spetsnaz trained—took on forty US soldiers in a four-hour firefight. The Russians lost almost every man; the Americans lost none. You can be sure that Putin took note, as did Xi Jinping.
A note about our 20-year war against “goat farmers and cave dwellers.” The occupation of an enemy is irrelevant. In the first part of the British-Afghan War (1842) the British lost more than 16,000 soldiers and civilians in the retreat from Kabul. Only one—yes, ONE—European survived. Not bad for “goat farmers and cave dwellers”. And by the way, the ancient Romans herded goats as well.
One more thing: Sparta was feared and hated among the other Greek city states, almost entirely due to her military excellence. And how did she achieve this? Sparta went to war every year against the Helot part of her population—good practice indeed. And as well, Sparta marched out every few years to make war against other Greek states—mainly Argos and Corinth. Again, good practice. And that is one possible reason why the US is still at war in the Middle East and Afghanistan. It makes for good practice.
Just ask Putin and his hundreds of mercenaries.
Divemedic · April 28, 2021 at 6:36 pm
So World War 2 was too long ago to use as an example of near peer warfare, but bringing up Sparta and a war between Britain and Afghanistan from the 19th century is a great example?
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