Posted on 08/29/2018 5:31:56 PM PDT by PreciousLiberty
In April, on the 69th anniversary of the founding of China’s navy, the country’s first domestically built aircraft carrier stirred from its berth in the port city of Dalian on the Bohai Sea, tethered to tugboats for a test of its seaworthiness.
“China’s first homegrown aircraft carrier just moved a bit, and the United States, Japan and India squirmed,” a military news website crowed, referring to the three nations China views as its main rivals.
Not long ago, such boasts would have been dismissed as the bravado of a second-string military. No longer.
A modernization program focused on naval and missile forces has shifted the balance of power in the Pacific in ways the United States and its allies are only beginning to digest.
While China lags in projecting firepower on a global scale, it can now challenge U.S. military supremacy in the places that matter most to it: the waters around Taiwan and in the disputed South China Sea.
(Excerpt) Read more at wral.com ...
"To do so, it has developed “anti-access” capabilities that use radar, satellites and missiles to neutralize the decisive edge that America’s powerful aircraft carrier strike groups have enjoyed. It is also rapidly expanding its naval forces with the goal of deploying a “blue water” navy that would allow it to defend its growing interests beyond its coastal waters."
So, what is to prevent the US from striking the various artificial islands in the South China Sea with either cruise missiles or stealthy aircraft. Answer: Nothing whatsoever.
In a similar vein, the US is more than capable of projecting force into the Taiwan Strait as needed.
Let China try to actually contest the US...it will be a bloodbath strictly on the Chinese side of things IMO. There is also much hidden behind the veil of US classified programs.
Even without that, I believe the B-2, F-22, and F-35 would provide a decisive advantage over the Chinese military.
One wonders how far the NYT has fallen, exactly...
China worries about it’s limited port access. It has long coveted blue water capability and it can now afford it.
They depend on trade for survival. Hard to feed all those people every day.
Not to mention our submarine technology is 50 years ahead of China. They have a few nuclear subs, but we can hear them from 100 miles away. And most of them are diesel boats - sitting ducks.
Most of the ships on the bottom row are helicopter carriers (America, Ocean, Mistral, Dokdo, Hyuga) or are no longer in service.
All 4 Illustrious class ships have been gone for 50+ years.
The Sao Paolo is being decommissioned and has never sailed for more than 3 months in a year.
The Chakri Naruebet rarely does more than shuttle the Thai Royal family.
The Liaoning was a 1980s ship, purchased from the Russians. The Chinese have their first 2 home-built carriers nearing completion, and a 3rd in planning.
The Vikramaditya was also Russian-built in the 80s. India is launching their first domestically-built carrier next year. (The Vikrant)
Italy is the only other nation with more than 1 carrier... it has 2... neither holds more than 20 aircraft.
The US has 2 more Gerald Ford class ships under construction (JFK and Enterprise)
That's 11-7 in modern and actively operational carriers, US vs World (UK, FR, IND, ITA, ITA, CN, RUS)... and counting all under construction, it's 13-11 (UK, IND, CN, CN).
Like the one that popped up inside a carrier battlegroup?
Or was that just more navy incompetence like all the collisions?
Imagine if, out of the blue, two Russian torpedoes suddenly blew big holes in the Chinese aircraft carrier? Even more interesting would be if those torpedoes were not fired from a submarine, but from an underwater platform that would then sink into very deep water? With no US ships anywhere in the area.
Perhaps the greatest vulnerability for an aircraft carrier is insufficient damage control, which takes a lot of very brutal combat to learn.
What a joke China is, the Liaoning looks just like the footprint of the Kuznetsov. And why is that? Because it is not strictly homegrown! Like if I pulled a '59 Chevy from a junkyard and refurbished it, I wouldn't claim that I designed it as an original built car! China has tiny muscles in the Pacific!
Yes, they bought the Liaoning from Russia... but in 2020, they will be second in the world, with 3 carriers. That makes a statement. China typically looks long-term. These 3 are also not likely to be the end of their growth curve... second and climbing... that's worth watching.
Australia has none... Japan has none... South Korea has none... Mighty naval power INDIA (*ahem*) will be the only regional rival, with 2 (one 80s Russian-built) .
Diesel boats are highly underrated.
The Navy knew that sub was there. There is nothing in peacetime to prevent a sub from popping up short of sinking it.
I interviewed a local retired submariner on this subject.
The US Navy’s submarines saw the Gook sub hours before it surfaced.
Bought from Ukraine, supposedly to become a floating casino, for $20 million. They're mostly using it as a training vessel instead of a fully operational ship. Their second carrier is updated for modern warfare. But China is far behind other nations in terms of experience and support groups. As for Russia's Kuznetsov, it has a history of problems and a tug often accompanies it when it breaks down. But China has probably overcome most of those issues that are a problem for Russia.
central_va: "Diesel boats are highly underrated."
Some are said to be very advanced, more stealthy than our own, others, older, not so much.
German diesel electrics seem especially capable, their biggest limitation being range/endurance:
German built Italian "Scirè arrives on a port visit at New London, Connecticut, on 27 August 2009"
while on batteries diesel boats are virtually impossible to find. I know from experience.
[China typically looks long-term.]
The general belief in the region is that Japan will match China ship-for-ship on carriers. I think the Obama years were a wake-up call for Japan, in terms of placing too much reliance on us in these "local" matters. Understandable.
As I understand it, the Liaoning was purchased from Russia or maybe even the Ukraine. This new carrier was built by China but it’s not a full-fledged blue water carrier. The third carrier will be much bigger and more capable.
Our military analysts say that three carriers based on three different designs will be impossible for them to support long-term. Parts are not the same, operations and support are different, and experience on one carrier won’t transfer smoothly to another.
Definitely purchased from Ukraine. The USSR's ship-builders for this class of ship was in Ukraine, and when the USSR broke up, the Liaoning hull had not been completed and was sold by Ukraine for $20 million to a group for use as a floating casino, which was a ruse by the Chinese to obtain the technology. Its sister ship the Kuznetsov had already been turned over to Russia before the breakup of the USSR and has been plagued by problems. And yes, China has three carriers built on different internal designs, and that will be a problem for them. They are no match for the USA.
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