Posted on 01/06/2014 5:47:12 AM PST by lbryce
Photo Op of the year: PLAN's 1st Carrier Battle Group (CVBG) CV Liaoning and her "entourage" return to Qingdao after a 37-day training exercise at sea. Note the company of three Shang class nuclear attack subs among this over-the-top photo o
Images of China’s aircraft carrier and its accompanying warships were released by the PLAN (People’s Liberation Army Navy) to celebrate the battle group’s first successful deployment.
Along with Liaoning, 10 more warships took part in the parade (which reminds the American ones): three destroyers, three frigates, three submarines and an amphibious assault ship. A total of eight jet fighters overflew the BG during the return leg of the cruise to Qingdao home port on China’s east coast.
But, as pointed out by defense journalist David Axe on War is Boring, the shots reveal the weaknesses in Chinese naval organization.
The secret to American naval power is the capability to support flattops by means of logistics ships, including tankers, dry stores vessels and ammunition ships.
“The Pentagon’s three-dozen active combat-support vessels, manned mostly by civilian mariners, busily crisscross the globe, carefully plotting their courses to regularly meet up with the carriers and other task forces in order to refuel and resupply them. But no logistics ships are visible in Liaoning’s recent photos. That could be because China possesses only a token naval logistical flotilla—and mostly uses it to support Beijing’s counter-piracy force off of East Africa. “Limited logistical support remains a key obstacle preventing the [Chinese] Navy from operating more extensively beyond East Asia,” the Pentagon reported recently” Axe explains.
Therefore, an image whose aim was to project an image of strength, also highlights the limits of the current Chinese maritime power.
Date posted is wrong.Should be January 3, 2014
Those will make fine man-made coral reefs.
MMMmmm. Targets.
Future submarines ?
Look what American buys in (every) store in America, is all made in China.
By Chinese workers.
Chinese workers are becoming quite skilled. Meanwhile American workers are layed off, and collecting unemployment.
This does not point toward a bright future. I’m just saying. America needs to bring back American jobs.
I’m series. Now.
I’ll be putting the wrong year on checks for at least another couple of weeks
Dumb question. Are the fighters pictured land based, carrier based, or photoshopped?
Interesting. At the Aviationist’s comment posts, the first poster expressed those very same sentiments.
Pretty sure those fighters are land based.
Please see post # 11
Made from high quality Chinese steel. Lifetime warranty.
How many container ships does China have, to keep the WalMart shelves stocked, and how hard would it be to take a few and convert them to support vessels? Better yet, support vessels which could continue to operate as commercial vessels until actually needed for naval support?
So who will the ChiComs, with Russia’s help, go after first, Taiwan or Japan? Maybe they’re planning to assist a North Korea takeover of SK as well.
Nah. No twin stabilizers.
By Bill Gertz
November 04, 2013
The Obama administration declined to comment on Sunday on provocative state-run Chinese media reports outlining Beijing’s nuclear war plans, including land-based and submarine-launched missile strikes on U.S. cities that would kill up to 12 million people.
State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf and Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith would not respond when asked about the highly unusual Chinese reports published Oct. 28 in numerous major Communist Party-controlled television and newspaper outlets.
The Chinese reports included maps showing nuclear strikes on Los Angeles and the Pacific Northwest, along with the resulting radiation plumes stretching thousands of miles across the western United States.
Global Times, viewed as China’s most xenophobic anti-U.S. media outlet, stated in its report that “the 12 JL-2 [submarine-launched ballistic missile] nuclear warheads carried by one single Type 094 SSBN can kill and wound 5 million to 12 million Americans.” The newspaper is a subsidiary of the People’s Daily, the organ of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. ..."
_______________________________________________
US worried about China’s nuke bombers hitting military bases
Nov 20, 2013
The United States is gravely concerned about China’s new long-range nuclear bombers that can target previously unreachable US military bases in the Pacific, according to a new report.
The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission warns in its annual report that China is "rapidly expanding and diversifying" its ability to strike US bases, ships and aircraft throughout the Pacific, even places like Guam that were previously out of reach, The Foreign Policy magazine reported on Wednesday.
The House Armed Services Committee is set to discuss China’s Hongzha-6K bomber at a hearing on Wednesday when members of the commission will testify about their report.
The US military has made Guam a key strategic military hub in the western Pacific as part of Washington’s new “pivot” strategy of realigning American forces toward Asia.
The report warned that China has become increasingly aggressive in the way it handles issues with US allies such as the Philippines and Japan.
"Although sovereignty disputes in the East and South China Seas are not new, China's growing diplomatic, economic, and military clout is improving China's ability to assert its interests," according to the report.
"It is increasingly clear that China does not intend to resolve the disputes through multilateral negotiations or the application of international laws and adjudicative processes but instead will use its growing power in support of coercive tactics that pressure its neighbors to concede to China's claims," it added.
China’s new drone, which resembles the MQ-9 Reaper, can be armed with Hellfire missiles, bombs and other weapons.
The commission also warned about the growth of the Chinese navy.
"By 2020, barring a US naval renaissance, it is possible that China will become the world's leading military shipbuilder in terms of the numbers of submarines, surface combatants and other naval surface vessels produced per year," said the report, citing Chinese military experts Andrew Erickson and Gabe Collins.
This is while the United States has planned to conduct more joint military exercises in western Pacific and encircle China with a chain of small air bases and military ports.
China is considering the Pentagon’s focus on the “pivot” to the Asia-Pacific as a strategy to counter China’s increasing global influence.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/11/20/335709/us-worried-about-chinas-nuke-bombers/
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.