Type-071 class LPD
Posted on 02/15/2012 4:54:14 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
As US Navy shrinks, China launches more, better war ships
HONG KONG — As looming budget cuts force the Pentagon to plan for a smaller US navy, China is accelerating the launch of new, increasingly capable warships as part of a sustained drive to become a major maritime power.
Shanghai's Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding Company late last month launched the fourth of China's new 071 amphibious landing ships according to reports carried by Chinese military web sites and the state-controlled media.
While most attention has been drawn to the ongoing sea trials of China's first aircraft carrier, military analysts say the expanding fleet of 20,000-ton landing ships, the biggest domestically designed and built vessels in the Chinese navy, delivers a far more immediate boost to Beijing's global influence.
"Having a significant fleet of large amphibious assault vessels clearly suggests a desire for power projection," says Christian Le Miere, a maritime security researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
"If you want the surgical insertion of forces, for a range of reasons, then you need amphibious response ships."
Military rivalry China's naval buildup comes amid mounting maritime tensions in the Asia-Pacific region, which is likely to be one of the main geopolitical stress points in the coming decade.
Military planners previously had focused mainly on a potential conflict in the Taiwan strait. More recently, however, Japan and China have locked horns over islands each claims in the East China Sea; Vietnam, the Philippines and other nations are disputing territorial claims with China over parts of the South China Sea thought to be rich in oil and gas.
The US Navy has announced it will deploy its own new amphibious assault vessels, the Littoral Combat Ships, to the "maritime crossroads" of the Asia-Pacific theater, stationing them in
(Excerpt) Read more at ph.news.yahoo.com ...
Type-071 class LPD
Paid for, and the factories which build them assembled by “Free trade”.
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Thanks you Clinton/Obama.
If the Chinese are to buy our debt to fund the Utopia, they need dollars. They send us junk, we send them dollars.
It's great for the social justice parasites, not so much for Americans who just want to support themselves and families.
Today's California is not our future. Our future is Greece.
Also, amphib operations are tougher than they look. They don't look easy.
Walmart’s money at work.
It’s unlikely that they plan an amphibious landing against Taiwan or Japan; shows of strength over the Spratlys would be more likely given it is close to Chinese airbases. In addition to ‘peacekeeping’ and evacuations like they undertook in Libya last year.
It’s almost as if being a manufacturing powerhouse with self-interested trade policies pays for a strong military.
But the reality is that we have fewer and fewer of both. The Chinese have a lot of missiles, and they are hoping that they can bring down a fair number of American planes without depending on dogfighting.
I don't know if they will, and I don't know if they won't. But we have something like 150 F-22s. Not much margin for effor there. Any war of attrition would deplete our fleet pretty quickly.
But what to do? Trade protection is socialist claptrap. Our CEO’s need 5 vacation homes instead of just 3, doncha know.
What to do?
Import tariffs.
Big ones. And some clarity, that it is “free trade” which is making China stronger, and America weaker.
Some cojones might help, too. The GOP is doing nothing, in fact seems to be on China’s side on the matter of “free trade”.
It’s going to become the issue, go forward. Republicans are on the wrong side, and will be hit by a tsunami of voter rage as the problem continues to deteriorate.
AMERICA FIRST.
Wake up people.
In related news...
Obama weighing up to 80% cut in U.S. nukes...
Fewer warheads than China!
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NUCLEAR_WEAPONS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Tariffs? America first? No, no, no...that’s socialist bugaboo. My fellow FReepers have deemed it so.
The people in the Pentagon are trying to figure out how to fight a war to keep the Straits of Hormuz open AND protect Taiwan in an attack from China ... with this new budget proposed by obama, they realize they don’t have enough resources for both fronts!
Keep speaking up.
People are starting to notice that “Free trade” isn’t anything at all, what we were told it would be.
We were all lied to. By people we very much trusted.
Waking up to a treachery that profound, is not something which happens overnight.
We have been sold out, by the people we believed were on our side, and who should have been protecting America.
They don’t want to protect America. They want to take the money and run. If America is left in shambles, they don’t care.
Get that part clear in your minds people. “Free traders” do not care about America.
They are part of the problem.
Just give China our ships.
That will offset some debt.
U.S. Navy Green Strike Force, Alternative Fuels .
The brave men and women in uniform, are out there on the wall to protect us.
The original “protectionism”.
Thank you to every American out there in uniform, for your protectionism. America loves you.
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