Posted on 02/22/2023 2:28:00 PM PST by hardspunned
China’s navy has significant advantages over its US rival, including a bigger fleet and greater shipbuilding capacity, as Beijing seeks to project its power across the oceans, the head of the United States Navy said Tuesday.
Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, US Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said China “consistently attempts to violate the maritime sovereignty and economic well-being of other nations including our allies in the South China Sea and elsewhere.” They got a larger fleet now so they’re deploying that fleet globally,” he said, adding that Washington must upgrade the US fleet in response.
“We do need a larger Navy, we do need more ships in the future, more modern ships in the future, in particular that can meet that threat,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
I’m of the opinion that WWIII will be to the super carrier what the American Civil War was to wooden hulled ships and WWII was to the battleship. The most likely start of WWIII happens, in my opinion, when China sinks one of our carriers trying to break the coming blockade of Taiwan.
It’s difficult to run a marathon in high heels.... /s
78.
I think they will sink several at once.
Yea.
The US could return to the “cheap and cheerful” construction program of WWII, if not building ships for us, then for our allies.
Imagine trying to navigate around when warships of a dozen or so nations *may or may not* be hostile to you, but are in the area. The first indicator may be a salvo of ship to ship missiles heading in your direction.
China does not have many allies in the South China Sea. But it has many enemies.
China has more itty bitty boats. The US Navy has more than double the tonnage of China’s.
“When’s the last time the US fought a modern enemy?”
That’s a broad question. We certainly haven’t fought a near-peer force in decades, but we did in Iraq fight an army equipped with modern equipment, organized along modern principles, etc. After all, we helped organize it. Either way, at least our army has some recent battlefield experience, compared to China which has none to speak of.
“Compared to China, Russia is qualitatively second rate.”
I’d say, in many ways, it’s just the opposite. China has been working hard to reverse that recently, but Russia has always been the more advanced military in terms of technology, and I think that is still strictly true. China’s main advantages are they are in much better economic shape than Russia and they have unlimited manpower. But they have extremely large geopolitical disadvantages that I see no way for them to overcome any time soon.
“And we haven’t fought a Naval war in 70 years either.”
True, but that’s a consequence of having a navy nobody is stupid enough to challenge I guess.
“For that matter, we haven’t WON a war in 70 years.”
Perhaps not completely, but the conventional portion of both Iraq wars and the Afghan war, we won handily in weeks. It was the unconventional portion of the last 2 that we faltered on, just like in Vietnam. So I think the main takeaway there is to steer clear of unconventional conflicts, unless we are ready to do the very messy things it would take to win them.
“qualitative gap” is fantasticly descriptive - I was just going to say, yeah but their ships are “made in China”
Brother in laws second cousin’s barber’s girlfriend........
+1
The total shock and awe overwhelming numbers of Desert Storm is not a true comparison. You’ll have to remember also the incredible shellacking highlighted by Swarzkopt’s daily bomb damage reports the month leading up to the invasion.
The only thing the Chinese really need to worry about America, other than the economic strangle hold they have on us, is our presence in the South and East China Seas. They certainly have the ability, locally, to enforce a blockade of Taiwan. They can certainly sink a US carrier off the coast of Taiwan that was attempting to break the blockade. It would be up to whoever or whatever in DC making these decisions to decide if that action would be the start of WWIII. A sane president wouldn’t. No sanity in DC lately.
May he rest in peace.
Jarbidge Bucket Brigade
Water rights in Oregan
Overall good man!
This is true.
And little planes took it out.
It big loss
I have this image of drone swarms just overwhelming sensors on our weapons. Flying - exploding spray cans of paint would really mess up optics. Dangling wires like Portugese-man-of-war drones could short out power lines.
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